The New York Times is reporting that Kurt Vonnegut has died at 84:
Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like "Slaughterhouse-Five," "Cat’s Cradle" and "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater" caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died last night in Manhattan. He was 84 and had homes in Manhattan and in Sagaponack on Long Island.
He lived a good long life, but that doesn't mean that this isn't a painful loss to swallow. He was one of the giants of 20th Century literature in any language.