Dag Solstad, the Norwegian author known for his gloomy and sometimes drily funny novels, has died at 83, the Guardian reports.

Solstad, a native of Sandefjord, Norway, worked as a journalist and teacher before publishing his first book, the story collection Spiraler, in 1965. He would go on to write more than two dozen more books.

His works to be published in English include Shyness and Dignity, translated by Sverre Lyngstad; T Singer, translated by Tiina Nunnally; Armand V, translated by Steven T. Murray; and Novel 11, Book 18, translated by Lyngstad.

In a 2016 interview with the Paris Review, Solstad said that he had been lucky as a writer. “Some passages I’ve written have made me doubt—Can I publish this, can I live with this being out there? And I’ve thought, I really can’t, but I’ll keep it anyhow. Generally it has worked out well. That’s luck, because I could just as easily have deleted those passages. I have deleted a lot.”

Solstad’s admirers paid tribute to him on social media. On the platform X, novelist Brandon Taylor wrote, “RIP Dag Solstad, one of the best weird guys of literature.”

And the account for U.K. publisher Harvill Secker posted on Instagram, “We are saddened to hear of the death of our author Dag Solstad. One of Norway’s most celebrated writers, and the only author to have won the Norwegian Critics prize three times, his legacy endures in his inimitable writing. Our thoughts are with his family.”

Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.