Popular, best-selling Australian author, known for writing life stories taking place in Australia and South Africa, died Thursday in his home in Canberra. He was 79.

According to the Associated Press, Courtenay's publisher, Penguin Group, said Friday that the writer died from stomach cancer in his family home late Thursday surrounded by his family and pets.

"We'd like to thank all of Bryce's family and friends and all of his fans around the world for their love and support for me and his family as he wrote the final chapter of his extraordinary life," his wife Christine Courtenay said in a joint statement with Penguin Books, according to Reuters.

The news comes to his fans just two weeks after his latest novel was published, and only less than three months after he told them he had stomach cancer.

Courtenay has written 21 novels, selling more than 20 million copies globally. However, he only began writing in his 50's.

Bryce Courtenay was born in Limpopo province, South Africa in 1933. He studied journalism in London, and in 1958 he left to go to Sydney and started writing advertising copy, according to TheAge.com.

"His plan was to work until he was 35 and then write novels. But with his son Damon a haemophiliac, he needed a regular income and eventually reached the top of the advertising business," the report said.

When he was 55-years-old, Courtenay signed a $1 million publishing deal for his first novel, "The Power of One."

He then wrote "April Fool's Day," the story of his son Damon and his death from AIDS, which he contracted from a tainted transfusion.

His other novels that followed included "Jessica," "Sylvia," and "The Potato Factory." Usually, he started each book on the last day of January and completed it by August. He usually wrote a book each year.

His final novel, "Jack of Diamonds," was published in early November, which featured a farewell from Courtenay to his readers, according to Reuters.

"It's been a privilege to write for you and to have you accept me as a storyteller in your lives. Now, as my story draws to an end, may I say only, 'Thank you. You have been simply wonderful'."

In a final interview for Penguin, Courtenay said he was going to die at precisely the right time, while he still had his intellect and energy. ''The time is right, it's beautiful, it's gorgeous.''

Courtenay is survived by his wife Christine and two sons from his first marriage.