Nooteboom, a Dutch novelist, travel writer and journalist, died Wednesday at 92, according to a statement from his publisher, De Bezige Bij. The publishing house told The Associated Press that Nooteboom died “very peacefully on his beloved island of Menorca,” with the message written on behalf of his wife, photographer Simone Sassen. De Bezige Bij said it would miss him and added that it did not provide a cause of death.

In its statement, De Bezige Bij said it would miss “the friendship, erudition, passion, and idiosyncrasy of this internationally acclaimed writer.” The publisher did not immediately announce funeral arrangements, and it was not reachable by phone late Wednesday, according to the report.

Nooteboom was known for writing in multiple forms, including fiction, poetry, songs, news reporting and travel writing. His body of work began with the novel “Philip and the Others,” which was based in part on his experiences hitchhiking through France and Scandinavia in the early 1950s and later became “a Dutch literary classic,” according to information cited by the AP report.

He later wrote newspaper columns and reported on major shifts in European life and politics. The AP report said his journalism covered events including Soviet troops entering Budapest in 1956, student protests in Paris in 1968, and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

After spending much of the 1960s and ’70s immersing himself in journalism and travel writing, Nooteboom made what the AP described as a comeback as a novelist in the 1980s. The report said “Rituals” turned him into a literary star and that it was made into a Dutch film.

The AP report also said that Nooteboom was lauded for his insights into European history and culture and was often tipped as a possible winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, though he never won the Nobel literature prize. It said he received major honors in Dutch and international literary circles, including all the major Dutch language prizes and Germany’s Konrad Adenauer Stiftung literature prize in 2010.

The Dutch National Library described Nooteboom’s writing as featuring “well-considered constructions” in his novels and stories and noted his “mastery of language” and the “erudition that emanates from every text,” according to the AP report. It also said his books were translated into more than 25 languages and that his work is particularly highly valued by readers and critics in Germany.