US writer and composer Paul Bowles died early Thursday at a hospital in Tangiers of cardiac arrest, medical sources said. He was 88. Bowles, who would have turned 89 next month, was hospitalized in Tangiers, where he made his home in northern Morocco, after falling into a coma because of a cardio-respiratory crisis. Bowles, a prolific writer, is probably best known for his book The Sheltering Sky , upon which the 1990 film of the same name is based.