Henning Mankell, Author of the ‘Wallander’ Series, Dies at 67

Swedish author Henning Mankell, best known for the Wallander series, died Monday morning at 67 years old, after being diagnosed with cancer last year.

A statement on his website confirmed the news. “He died in his sleep early this morning in Göteborg,” the site says.

The Wallander series, which featured Swedish policeman Kurt Wallander, were turned into a TV show starring Sir Kenneth Branagh, who spoke of Mankell’s death. In a statement, per BBC, he said, “In life and in art Henning Mankell was a man of passionate commitment. I will miss his provocative intelligence and his great personal generosity. Aside from his stringent political activism, and his decades of work in Africa, he also leaves an immense contribution to Scandinavian literature.”

Mankell wrote over 40 books during his long career, selling more than 40 million copies worldwide. He divided his time between Sweden and Mozambique, where he became a fixture in the arts culture, specifically at Maputo’s Teatro Avenida. “I have been accused of many things in my life,” he once told EW. “But never of being lazy.”

This article originally appeared on EW.com