SAINT-TROPEZ (France), Dec 6: Celebrated French author Dominique Lapierre has "died of old age", his wife Dominique Conchon-Lapierre said on Sunday. She also said that she is "at peace and serene since Dominique is no longer suffering". No details were given. He died on December 4, aged 91.

His works, fiction and non-fiction, were best sellers. A total of 50 million copies, including translations in more than two dozen dozen languages, have been sold worldwide.

Lapierre had a passionate relationship with India. One of his best known novels, 'City of Joy', is about the life of a rickshaw puller in Kolkata. He also authored 'Freedom at Midnight' about the partition of India. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award, in 2008. He founded the City of Joy Foundation in 1981 which helped Kolkata's slum children suffering from leprosy and tuberculosis.

Some of his books were written in collaboration with American author Larry Collins.

His first well-known book was ‘A Dollar for a Thousand Miles'. Others are 'Is Paris Burning' (1965, non-fiction chronicle of events of Nazi surrender of Paris in 1944, witten in collaboration with Larry Collins and later adapted into a movie by Francis Ford Coppola), 'Freedom at Midnight' (1975, a moving account of the partition of India), 'City of Joy' (1985, about the life of a rickshaw puller in Kolkata), 'The Fifth Horseman' (1980) and 'Is New York Burning?' (2004), fiction thrillers about terror strikes.

Lapierre is survived by his wife and daughter Alexandra Lapierre, who is also a novelist. He was born on July 30, 1931 in Chatelaillon in France. His father was a diplomat and mother a journalist. His life was mostly spent in exploratory travel and writing.