A.B. Yehoshua, one of Israel’s country’s best-known authors, died Tuesday at 85, the New York Times reports.

Yehoshua was born in Jerusalem, then part of Mandatory Palestine, and grew up there, serving in the Israeli army in the 1950s. He made his literary debut in 1962 with the short story collection The Death of the Old Man.

Several more books followed, including A Late Divorce, Mr. Mani, Open Heart, and A Woman in Jerusalem. His more recent works include The Retrospective, The Extra, and The Tunnel; in a starred review, a critic for Kirkus called the latter book “a quirky, deeply affecting work by a master storyteller.”

He was nominated for the International Booker Prize in 2005. The following year, won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for A Woman in Jerusalem.

Yehoshua was remembered by his admirers on social media. On Twitter, Atlantic senior editor for books Gal Beckerman wrote, “Saddened by the death of A.B. Yehoshua. Much will be made of his disparaging of Diaspora Jews and his views on the Is-Pal conflict. But I also hope people go and read ‘Mr. Mani’ and ‘The Lover,’ wonderful novels that defined an era of Israeli literature.”

And the account for the Israeli Embassy in the U.S. tweeted, “Saddened by the passing of A. B. Yehoshua (85), a renowned Israeli novelist, essayist, and playwright who was called the ‘Israeli Faulkner’ by the New York Times. Sending our deepest condolences to his family. May his memory be a blessing.”

Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.