Yann Martel

Yann Martel, son of Canadian diplomats, was born in 1963 in Salamanca, Spain and grew up in a patchwork of countries. With his second novel Life of Pi winning this year's Man Booker Prize, the author might feel a little like his hero, stuck on a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean with a Royal Bengal Tiger.

Described as "a story that will make you believe in God", the Life of Pi is a classic work of survival literature. Gulliver's Travels with stripes.

"Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it."

His two previous books are the novel Self and The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamations, a collection of stories.

Yann Martel currently lives in Berlin.