Hungarian writer Peter Esterhazy dies at 66

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) - Peter Esterhazy, one of Hungary's most renowned contemporary authors, has died. He was 66.

Esterhazy, who announced last year that he had pancreatic cancer, died Thursday, his family said through the Magveto Publishing house.

Esterhazy's most famous book was "Celestial Harmonies" (2000), a part-autobiographical account of the history of his family with aristocratic roots. While often in the middle of some of the key events and eras of European and Hungarian history, the book is nonetheless a mostly mosaic-like account of their long decline.

Born in Budapest on April 14, 1950, Esterhazy obtained a mathematics degree in 1974 before becoming a writer. He was very popular in Germany and also received the Kossuth Prize, Hungary's highest cultural distinction, in 1996.

Eszterhazy is survived by his wife Margit and four children.