If you’ve seen Life of Pi then you may know it originally came from a book by Yann Martel, but do you know any facts about the author?
Yann Martel is a Canadian author.
He was born on June 25, 1963, making his star sign Cancer. He was born in Salamanca, Spain.
His first language is French.
He prefers to express his thoughts in fiction, through English.
His parents are French-Canadian.
His father, Nicole Perron, was a diplomat for the Canadian government.
As a child, his family moved around a lot. He’s lived in: Canada, Costa Rica, France, and Mexico.
He was educated at Trinity College School in Ontario.
He studied philosophy at Trent University in Ontario.
As an adult, he has lived in India, Iran, and Turkey.
He currently lives in Saskatoon, Canada.
He spent thirteen months in India.
Whilst there, he visited many churches, mosques, temples and zoos.
For two years, Martel read just adventure books and religious texts.
His first book Seven Stories was published in 1993.
His second book The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios was the winner of the Journey Prize.
In Saskatoon, he spent a year as the public library’s writer-in-residence.
He collaborated with composer Omar Daniel in Toronto.
The piece was for bass, piano and string quartet, and included telephone conversations from life.
He was the scholar-in-residence at the University of Saskatchewan.
His most famous text, Life of Pi, was published in 2001.
With Life of Pi, he was accused of plagiarism because of the text’s plot.
After the accusation, he later said it was “inspired” by Moacyr Scliar’s novel, Max and his Cats.
Life of Pi became a film by Ang Lee in 2012.
It is up for eleven Oscar nominations.
The book has sold over one million copies worldwide.
Dante’s Divine Comedy is “the single most impressive book” he has ever read.
A book that made him cry was Alphonse Daudet’s Le Petit Chose.
