Yann Martel Biography

Journey Prize (1991)

Man Booker Prize (2001)

Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction (2001)

Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature (2001)

The Boeke Prize (2003)

La Presse du Grand Public (2003)

Deutscher Bücherpreis (2004)

Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012)

Coventry Inspiration Book Awards (2014)

Companion, Order of Canada (2021)

Life before writing career

Yann Martel was born on June 25, 1963 in Salamanca, Spain. His parents are French-Canadian.They lived in Western Canada, the United States, Central America, and Europe, among other places. Martel began studying philosophy at Trent University in 1981 after finishing secondary school in Port Hope, Ontario. He performed odd jobs after graduating and spent years traveling abroad. At the age of 27, he resolved to commit himself to literature.

Early career

In 1993, Martel released his debut book, a collection of short stories titled The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios. The main story in this collection, which won the 1991 Journey Prize, honors the power of creativity in the lives of two teenage friends facing the harsh reality of HIV/AIDS. More broadly, this moving collection addresses the intertwined themes of mortality, memory, and the essence of storytelling. Self (1996), Martel's debut novel, is a fictional autobiography that explores questions of identity, gender, and transformation in a society defined by diverse social and cultural limitations.

Life of Pi

After the phenomenal success of his third book, Life of Pi, Martel ascended to international prominence (2001). This best-selling novel, which won the prestigious Man Booker Prize in Britain in 2002, was also nominated for the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book and the Governor General's Literary Award (among others). In 2003, it was included on the CBC's Canada Reads series. Life of Pi follows Pi Patel, an Indian youngster who is shipwrecked in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with a wounded zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and Richard Parker, a huge Bengal tiger. Martel advises his readers to suspend their disbelief in order to better understand the mind's extraordinary ability to deal with the most exceptional of events. Life of Pi was published as an illustrated version in 2007 (drawn by Tomislav Torjanac), adapted as a play in 2003, and adapted for film in 2007. (2012). Suraj Sharma played Pi in the film, which was directed by Ang Lee, who won an Academy Award for Best Director for Life of Pi in 2013. Some debate erupted after critics noticed parallels between the novel and Max and the Cats by Brazilian novelist Moacyr Scliar (1981).

After Life of Pi

Martel's works on memory, horrorand the consequences of human error and evil have continued to be published. We Ate the Children Last: Stories, his 2004 collection, is a cautionary speculative work about experimental medical treatment and human consumption. Andrew Cividino directed the short film adaptation (2011). Beatrice and Virgil, Martel's third novel, was released in 2010. The book is titled after two prominent characters, a plush donkey and a monkey, exhibiting Martel's continuous use of animals to study the human condition. The work is a complicated reflection on fact and imagination, as well as the Holocaust and how writers have interpreted that horrible tragedy. It employs metafictional tactics and blurs the lines between nonfiction, fiction, drama, and autofiction. Lindsay Cochrane adapted Beatrice and Virgil into a play, which premiered at Toronto's Factory Theatre in 2014.

Seven Stories (1993)