SOURCE: DECCAN HERALD

Brazilian novelist Lygia Fagundes Telles, one of the most celebrated writers in the Portuguese language, died Sunday in Sao Paulo at age 98, the Brazilian Academy of Letters said.

Telles, who was elected a member of the academy in 1985, was a five-time winner of Brazil's prestigious Jabuti prize, and was awarded the Camoes, the most important prize in Portuguese literature, in 2005.

"She was a grande dame of Brazilian literature, one of the nation's best-loved writers," wrote newspaper Estado de Sao Paulo.