Agent: Pulitzer winner Oscar Hijuelos dies at age 62; wrote of Cuban immigrant experience

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Oscar Hijuelos (ee-HWAY’-los), a Cuban-American novelist who won a Pulitzer Prize for his work “The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love,” has died in New York. He was 62.

His agent, Jennifer Lyons, said Hijuelos died of a heart attack in Manhattan while playing tennis Saturday.

Hijuelos’ writings often captured the losses and triumphs of the Cuban immigrant experience.

“The Mambo Kings” was published in 1989 and became an international bestseller. It won the Pulitzer for fiction in 1990 and tells the story of two Cuban brothers who journey from Havana to New York to start an orchestra.

The novel was turned into a movie, starring Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas.

Hijuelos’ other works include “Our House in the Last World,” ”Empress of the Splendid Season” and “Dark Dude.”