Nicholas Evans, the British author of the bestselling novel “The Horse Whisperer,” has died at 72, his representatives said Monday.
United Agents said Evans died “suddenly” on Aug. 9 following a heart attack.
“The Horse Whisperer,” Evans’ first book, was published in 1995 and has since sold more than 15 million copies worldwide. A Hollywood film with Robert Redford as the title character and Scarlett Johansson playing young rider Grace MacLean in her breakthrough role was made from the true story of a trainer hired to help a wounded teen and her horse recover.
Evans, who was born in Worcestershire, England, in 1950, attended Oxford University where he studied law and worked as a journalist in the 1970s.
Before starting to write his first novel, he had experience as a screenwriter and producer of television documentaries. The Loop, The Smoke Jumper, The Divide, and The Brave are some of his other books.
In 2008, Evans became seriously ill after cooking and eating poisonous mushrooms picked in Scottish forests. He and his family were hospitalized and had to undergo kidney treatments.
