Yann Martel
CBC Books | Posted: June 27, 2018 9:14 PM | Last Updated: August 8, 2018
Spanish-born Canadian Yann Martel is a novelist and short story writer. His parents were in the Canadian Foreign Service and so he spent much of his childhood travelling with them to various regions around the world.
He first released a collection of short stories entitled The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios in 1993, followed by his debut novel Self in 1996. Martel's 2001 book Life of Pi became an international bestseller, winning the 2002 Man Booker Prize. It was also nominated for the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book and the Governor General's Literary Awards and was a Canada Reads finalist in 2003, defended by Nancy Lee. In 2012, a film adaptation of the same name won an Academy Award. He is also the author of the novels Beatrice and Virgil and The High Mountains of Portugal.