The Spanish-born Canadian author Yann Martel started writing in college but was unpopular until his Man Booker prize-winning novel ‘Life of Pi.’ Having established himself as a universally recognized author, he reflects on his university works as immature. Although he has not published many books, his six published books have stirred enough interest and critical acclaim. His first work to appear in print was “Mister Ali and the Barrelmaker,” – a short story published by The Malahat Review. They are the ones who published his first book, “The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios,” a collection of stories. Yann Martel’s best books as they received credit.
Life of Pi
Yann Martel’s second novel but his first work to bring him to the limelight, Life of Pi, was published in 2001. The novel’s protagonist Pi Patel narrates the incidents before and after the shipwreck that changed his life. When Pi was sixteen, his family decided to move to Canada. Unfortunately, their ship sinks, and Pi loses his family. In the vast Pacific Ocean, he was left in the company of a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a Bengal tiger. As the story progresses, only Pi and the tiger are left to starve and survive. How the man-tiger duo co-exist together in the lifeboat gets the story going. The story has many religious and spiritual allegories woven along with the metaphors of life.
Beatrice and Virgil
Beatrice and Virgil, published in 2010, is Yann Martel’s third novel. This allegorical story, structured as a story within a story, touches upon the Holocaust. It narrates an extraordinary journey undertaken by Henry, the protagonist, during his visit to a taxidermist.
Henry, a successful novelist, has been working on his new project on the Holocaust with no progress. Meanwhile, he receives a letter, which is played by a taxidermist. Titled “A 20th Century Shirt,” it was about an event called “the Horrors” and how it affected Beatrice, a donkey, and Virgil, a howler monkey. Intrigued, he goes to visit the taxidermist. Being there, he realizes that the taxidermist has attained what he had been trying to. Unfortunately, things go wrong between them, leaving him with just a fragmented memory of the information provided by the taxidermist.
The names and titles refer to the main characters in Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. The way Martel arranged the story and the events make it look clumsy, and his intention about the Holocaust is unclear. Thus leading to rasp criticism and less reception.
The High Mountains of Portugal
The High Mountains of Portugal is a story of three different sets of people woven around the high mountains of Portugal. The story deals with loss and how each character comes to terms with it. Set in three different times of the 20th century, the three stories in the book have a historical event draped in the background, giving away a realistic feel to the readers. The stories titled “Homelessness,” “Homeward,” and “Home,” respectively, allude to the Trinity in the Bible, implying the author’s intention. Through the characters Tomas, Eusebio Lozora, and Peter, Martel makes the readers realize that grief goes away with time. And time is a soother and eroder that could make the suffering less heart-piercing as time passes.
The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios
The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios is a collection of four short stories. Namely, “The facts behind the Helsinki Roccamatios,” “The time I heard the private Donald J. Rankin string concerto with one discordant violin, by the American composer John Morton,” “Manners of dying,” “The Vita Aeterna Mirror Company: mirrors to last till kingdom come.”
The title story describes the course of the book where two young men, one of them dying of AIDS, formulate a plan to distract by telling each other stories. They decide to transpose the historical events of the 20th century into episodes in the life of a fictional Italian-Finnish family, the Roccamatios.
The book’s reviewers stated that the stories in this collection are simpler than Martel’s later works. Yet, he has dealt with the hard subjects of life, love, loss, suffering, and the human condition in this.
101 Letters to a Prime Minister
‘101 Letters to a Prime Minister‘ is a collection of letters from Yann Martel to the prime minister of Canada. From 2007 to 2011, Martel sent a book to the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, every two weeks, along with a letter explaining why he might enjoy that particular book. For this purpose, he has chosen books from a wide range of fiction, including those he enjoyed, detested, and felt bored with. Also, the books he has chosen consist of about 200 pages, for he realized that the Prime Minister’s schedule is quite hectic.
This repository of books encompasses a good collection of books from all walks of life.
FAQs
In which language does Martel write?
Martel prefers to write in English despite being a lingo-franca. He stated that even though French is closest to his heart, he writes in English because “English is the language in which I best express the subtlety of life… English gives me a sufficient distance to write.”
When did Yann Martel start writing?
Yann Martel became a writer after working various jobs, from washing dishes to planting trees. Initially, he wanted to be a politician, then an anthropologist, but by the time he was 27, he was earning as a writer. He began writing plays and short stories based on his travel experiences.
Why does Yann Martel write?
Yann Martel started writing when he was in college. Yet, it took some time for him to establish himself as a writer. He expresses his creative energies in his works, which helps him pass the time meaningfully. He once said that he writes to understand issues that are important to him.
How many books has Yann Martel written?
Yann Martel has written eight books, including his Man Booker prize-winning Life of Pi. Other works comprise Seven Stories, The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, Self, We Ate the Children Last, Beatrice and Virgil, 101 Letters to a Prime Minister, and The High Mountains of Portugal.
