Novelist Shirley Hazzard Dies At 85

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Award-winning novelist Shirley Hazzard has died at her home in New York City.

The Australian-born Hazzard was 85 years old.

Hazzard's ``The Transit of Venus,'' which was published in 1980, won the National Book Critics Circle prize. She also was a three-time National Book Award finalist, and won in 2003 for ``The Great Fire.''

Hazzard's friend Frances Alston said the author died Monday. Hazzard had been in failing health.

Hazzard's other books included the short story collections ``Cliffs of Fall'' and ``People in Glass Houses.'' She also wrote a memoir about her friend Graham Greene, ``Greene in Capri,'' and two books about the United Nations, where she worked in the 1950s.

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