Sunday, October 14, 2007

Yann Martel

Anna Metcalfe interviewed Yann Martel for the Financial Times.

Martel is the author of the Booker prize-winning novel Life of Pi. His other books include a collection of short stories, The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, and his first novel, Self.

He is a scholar-in-residence in English at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. Born in Salamanca, Spain, Martel is a Canadian citizen.

A couple of the questions and answers:
What is the last thing you read that made you laugh out loud?

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. It’s incredibly funny in its approach to the grimness within it.

* * *

What book do you wish you’d written?

There are books I feel I could have written. The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima; Hunger by Knut Hamsun, Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee.

Read the entire Q & A.

--Marshal Zeringue