The life of Yann

Yann Martel had started to despair of making literature a viable day job when fortune smiled on him, writes Rosemary Sorensenin The Australian, September 13, 2008

VERY few novels propel their authors on a world tour lasting several years, and Yann Martel knows that he will never again have the opportunities that came his way following the phenomenal success of Life of Pi.

Yann Martel's next book offers a fresh perspective on the Holocaust

Six years on from the night he punched the air and whooped with unbridled joy when his name was read out as the winner of the Man Booker Prize, Martel is preparing for the publication of his new book, a combo novel and essay about the Holocaust.With the manuscript delivered to his publishers, he has earned himself a long holiday, he says, and he and his wife, author Alice Kuipers, will spend the next eight months on the road, away from the house they recently bought in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

The first month of their travels will be spent in Australia, where he has star billing at the Brisbane Writers Festival. Despite that so-called world tour, this will be Martel's first time in Australia.
Top of the list of things to see is birds. Somewhere between Brisbane and Sydney, the stretch of country the couple are restricting themselves to in the weeks they have at their disposal before they must head to Italy for a wedding, Martel wants to see flocks of cockatoos and budgies. In Canada such exotic birds are sold for thousands of dollars; he's heard that farmers shoot them in Australia, and flocks of such pests he wants to see with his own eyes.

Read the full story at The Australian online.