Yann Martel

Yann Martel was born in Salamanca, Spain, in 1963, to Canadian parents who were studying for a degree. They both later joined Canada overseas and grew up in Costa Rica, France, Spain and Mexico, in addition to Canada. He continued to travel extensively as an adult, spending time in Iran, Turkey and India, but has now settled mostly in Montreal. He graduated with a degree in Philosophy from Trent University in Ontario, and worked as a herbalist, dishwasher and security guard before embarking on a full-time career at the age of 27. His first book, a collection of short stories entitled The The Be Be the Helsinki Roccamatios, was first published in 1993. These stories deal with topics such as illness, storytelling and the history of the twentieth century; music, war and the misery of youth; how we die; and grief, loss and reasons attached to material things. His first novel, The Self, was published in 1996. The Montreal Gazette described it as '[[a] great psychological awareness of love, attraction and membership'. In 2002 he won the Mun Booker Prize for Fiction for his second novel, Life of Pi (2002), a remarkable survival story with a thrilling religious theme. Pi's Life is published in more than 40 countries and in 30 languages. He is the author of We Ate the Children Last (2004) and Beatrice and Virgil (2010) and The High Mountain of Portugal (2016). He lives in Montreal where he divides her time between yoga, writing and volunteering in the childcare unit.