Rohinton MistryCM (born 1952) is an
Indian-born
Canadian writer. He has been the recipient of many awards including the
Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2012. Each of his first three novels was
shortlisted for the
Booker Prize. His novels to date have been set in India, told from the perspective of
Parsis, and explore themes of family life, poverty, discrimination, and the corrupting influence of society.[1]
He emigrated to Canada with his wife-to-be Freny Elavia in 1975 and they married shortly afterwards.[4] He worked in a bank for a while, before returning to academia at the
University of Toronto where he obtained a BA in English and Philosophy.[5][6]
Career
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While attending the
University of Toronto (Woodsworth College) he became the first to win two
Hart House literary prizes for stories published in the Hart House Review, and Canadian Fiction Magazine's annual Contributor's Prize for 1985.[7]
Three years later,
Penguin Books Canada published his collection of 11
short stories, Tales from Firozsha Baag. It was later published in the United States as Swimming Lessons and Other Stories from Firozsha Baag. The book consists of 11 stories set within an apartment complex in modern-day Bombay. This volume contains the oft-anthologized story, "Swimming Lessons".[8]
His third book, and second novel, A Fine Balance (1995), won the second annual
Giller Prize in 1995, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction in 1996. It was selected for
Oprah's Book Club[11] in November 2001. It won the 1996 Commonwealth Writers Prize and was shortlisted for the 1996 Booker Prize.[12]
Family Matters (2002) is a consideration of the difficulties that come with ageing, to which topic Mistry returned in 2008 with the short fiction The Scream (published as a separate volume, in support of World Literacy of Canada, with illustrations by
Tony Urquhart). Mistry's literary papers are housed at the Clara Thomas Archives at
York University.[13]
In 2002, Mistry cancelled his United States book tour for his novel Family Matters after he and his wife were targeted by security agents at every airport.[14][15]
Awards and recognition
1983 – Hart House Literary Contest, "One Sunday"
1984 – Hart House Literary Contest, "Auspicious Occasion"
1985 – Annual Contributors' Prize, Canadian Fiction Magazine
1991 –
Booker Prize, shortlist, Such a Long Journey
^
abMalieckal, Bindu (2000). "Rohinton Mistry". In Nelson, Emmanuel Sampath (Ed.), Asian American Novelists: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, pp. 219–28. Greenwood Publishing Group.
ISBN0-313-30911-6.