Yann Martel
Canadian novelist (born 1963)
Who was Yann Martel?
Yann Martel, (born June 25, 1963) is a Canadian author who wrote the Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi, an international bestseller published in more than 50 territories. Martel is also the author of the novels The High Mountains of Portugal, Beatrice and Virgil, Son of Nobody, and Self, the collection of stories The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, and a collection of letters to Canada's Prime Minister 101 Letters to a Prime Minister. It has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide and spent more than a year on the bestseller lists of The New York Times and The Globe and Mail, among many other best-selling lists. Martel lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, with writer Alice Kuipers and their four children.
Historical significance
Life of Pi was adapted for a movie of the same name directed by Ang Lee, receiving four Academy Awards including the Academy Award for Best Director and winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. He has won a number of literary prizes, including the 2001 Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and the 2002 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. His first language is French, but he writes in English.