Last Samurai author found alive

DeWitt's book was met with critical acclaim

Helen DeWitt, the author of the novel The Last Samurai, has been found alive by Niagara Falls police in the US after being reported missing.

DeWitt, 46, had been missing from her home on Staten Island, New York, since Tuesday morning. Police had asked for information on her whereabouts.

She was found by police on Wednesday and taken to hospital for evaluation.

DeWitt's novel is unrelated to the film The Last Samurai, a recent Hollywood epic starring Tom Cruise.

The book is about a single mother and her four-year-old son Ludo. He reads Ancient Greek and is obsessed with the classic Kurosawa film The Seven Samurai.

The book, released in 2000, won acclaim from around the world and was published in 14 countries.

Her disappearance followed the discovery of the body of acclaimed US writer and actor Spalding Gray in New York's East River earlier this year, two months after he had gone missing.

Police said Gray's death had been an apparent suicide.