A leading author in Portugal, Jose Cardoso Pires, has died in a Lisbon hospital at the age of seventy-three.

Cardoso Pires won all of Portugal's major literary awards, and his works, including novels, poetry and plays, were translated into a number of foreign languages.

He is best known for his novel, "Ballad of Dog's Beach " , about a crime hushed up during Portugal's right-wing dictatorship.

The winner of this year's Nobel Prize for Literature, Cardoso Pires' compatriot Jose Saramago, said the author's death was a huge loss for Portugal.