Yann Martel





Yann Martel

Author profile


born
June 25, 1963 in Salamanca, Spain

gender
male

website

genre


About this author

Yann Martel is a Canadian author best known for the Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi.

Author Biography: Yann Martel was born in Spain in 1963 of peripatetic Canadian parents. He grew up in Alaska, British Columbia, Costa Rica, France, Ontario and Mexico, and has continued travelling as an adult, spending time in Iran, Turkey and India. Martel refers to his travels as, “seeing the same play on a whole lot of different stages.”
After studying philosophy at Trent University and while doing various odd jobs -- tree planting, dishwashing, working as a security guard -- he began to write. In addition to Life of Pi, Martel is the prize-winning author of The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, a collection of short stories, and of S

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Average rating: 3.76 · 221,414 ratings · 20,695 reviews · 13 distinct works
Life of Pi
3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 avg rating — 214,248 ratings — published 2001 — 118 editions
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Beatrice and Virgil
2.97 of 5 stars 2.97 avg rating — 5,112 ratings — published 2010 — 36 editions
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The Facts Behind Helsinki Rocc...
3.41 of 5 stars 3.41 avg rating — 1,250 ratings — published 1993 — 22 editions
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Self
3.28 of 5 stars 3.28 avg rating — 611 ratings — published 1996 — 11 editions
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What Is Stephen Harper Reading...
3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 avg rating — 69 ratings3 editions
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Teaching Yann Martel's Life of...
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3.72 of 5 stars 3.72 avg rating — 18 ratings
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Teaching Yann Martel's Life of...
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3.72 of 5 stars 3.72 avg rating — 18 ratings
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Vita di Pi
0.0 of 5 stars 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2001
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101 Letters to a Prime Ministe...
0.0 of 5 stars 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — expected publication 2012
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101 lettres à un premier mini...
0.0 of 5 stars 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2011
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The Secret History of Fantasy
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3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 avg rating — 86 ratings — published 2010 — 2 editions
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Rush Hour: Reckless
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4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 2004 — 3 editions
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A General History of Quadruped...
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2.0 of 5 stars 2.00 avg rating — 1 rating7 editions
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Life of Pi (SparkNotes Literat...
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0.0 of 5 stars 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2007 — 2 editions
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Interviews

April 2010, Yann Martel
"War, for example, is constantly being treated by artists, oftentimes with scant regard for the reality of war. Why is this not only permissible but good? Because in doing so we come to a full understanding of what war means to us. I believe the same must apply to the Holocaust." ...More

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“I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unnerving ease. It begins in your mind, always ... so you must fight hard to express it. You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don't, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.”
Yann Martel, Life of Pi

“To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.”
Yann Martel, Life of Pi

“If we, citizens, do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams.”
Yann Martel, Life of Pi

Polls

Which is your favourite Booker Prize winning book?

 
  38 votes, 14.2%

 
  35 votes, 13.1%

 
  35 votes, 13.1%

 
  32 votes, 11.9%

 
  29 votes, 10.8%

The Booker what?????
 
  28 votes, 10.4%

 
  20 votes, 7.5%

Other (please specify)
 
  12 votes, 4.5%

 
  12 votes, 4.5%

 
  9 votes, 3.4%

 
  8 votes, 3.0%

 
  8 votes, 3.0%

 
  2 votes, 0.7%

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