Yann Martel is a Canadian author who was born on 25th June, 1963 in Salamanca, Spain. He is very famous for his Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi.
Martel spent most of his childhood in Spain and did his schooling there. After completing his education, he traveled around the globe to many countries. He spent time in Turkey, India and Iran. He studied philosophy at Trent University, Ontario and after that Martel spent over one year in India visiting various temples, mosques, and churches and other religious places. He spent two more years in India studying religious books and stories.
In 1993, he first wrote a fictional book, Seven Stories. This book made him get recognition and after this, he wrote Life of Pi in 2001 and for this book he received Man Booker Prize award in the year 2002. After this, the book Life of Pi faced allegtions as being copied. It started when people saw on preface a note saying that this book is dedicated to the author Moacyr Scliar.
It is said that some parts of Life of Pi resemble some parts in one of Moacyr Scliar's books. But Moacyr Scliar himself said on record that he has read Life of Pi and found that both the books are very different from each other. After this, Life of Pi was chosen for many competitions and it won them too.
From September 2003, he worked as writer in residence at public library in Saskatoon. There he started his interaction with a Canadian composer in residence at Royal Conservatory of Music, Omar Daniel. The latter created a composition with Martel's lyrics. He was announced as the scholar-in-residence at the University of Saskatchewan in December, 2005.
He is currently working on his next novel which has Holocaust as it's main backdrop. The story of this novel tentatively titled as 'A 20th century Shirt' will be the interaction between a talking donkey and a talking monkey. These are two pictures on the shirt of a man. The novel is going to be published along with an essay with the same theme. This essay is also going to be published under the name of 'A 20th century Shirt'.
When asked why he is writing a novel and essay with same backdrop, he said that both are different approaches to a single subject. He said that it is going to be a philosophical book and the book progresses in a single conversation between the donkey and the monkey. He is also working on an other book titled What is Stephen Harper Reading.
