Rohinton Mistry
Rohinton Mistry (born
3 July,
1952) is considered to be one of the foremost authors of South Asian origin writing in English. Residing in
Brampton,
Ontario,
Canada, Mistry is originally of
Indian origin, and belongs to the
Parsi Zoroastrian religious minority.
Born in
Mumbai,
India, Mistry immigrated to Canada in 1975. While attending the
University of Toronto he won two
Hart House literary prizes and
Canadian Fiction Magazine's annual Contributor's Prize for 1985. Two years later,
Penguin Books Canada published his collection of 11
short stories,
Tales from Firozsha Baag.
When his first novel,
Such a Long Journey, was published in 1991, it won the
Governor General's Award, the
Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book, and the
W.H. Smith/
Books in Canada First Novel Award. It was shortlisted for the prestigious
Booker Prize and for the
Trillium Award. It has been translated into
German,
Swedish,
Norwegian,
Danish and
Japanese, and has been made into the 1998 film
Such a Long Journey.His second novel,
A Fine Balance (1995), was selected for
Oprah's Book Club in November 2001 and sold hundreds of thousands of additional copies throughout North America.
In 2002, Mistry cancelled his
United States book tour for his novel "Family Matters" (2002) because he and his wife were targeted by security agents at every
airport he visited, apparently because of his appearance. Mistry reported that on his first flight of the tour, "we were greeted by a ticket agent who cheerfully told us we had been selected
randomly for a special security check. Then it began to happen at every single stop, at every single airport. The random process took on a 100 percent certitude." His publisher issued a statement that said, "As a
person of color (Mistry) was stopped repeatedly and rudely at each airport along the way—to the point where the
humiliation ... had become unbearable."
His books so far portray diverse facets of Indian socioeconomic life; as well as Parsi Zoroastrian life, customs, and religion.
His literary papers are housed at the
Clara Thomas Archives at
York University.
Tales from Firozsha Baag (1987)
Such a Long Journey (1991)
A Fine Balance (1996)
Family Matters (2002)
*1983 First Prize, Hart House Literary Contest: "One Sunday" (short story)
*1984 First Prize, Hart House Literary Contest: "Auspicious Occasion" (short story)
*1985 Annual Contributors' Prize, Canadian Fiction Magazine
*1991
Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist):
Such a Long Journey*1991
Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction (Canada):
Such a Long Journey*1992
Commonwealth Writers Prize (Overall Winner, Best Book):
Such a Long Journey*1992
Books in Canada First Novel Award:
Such a Long Journey*1995
Giller Prize (Canada):
A Fine Balance*1996 Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist):
A Fine Balance*1996 Commonwealth Writers Prize (Overall Winner, Best Book):
A Fine Balance*1997 Irish Times International Fiction Prize (shortlist):
A Fine Balance*2002 James Tait Black Memorial Prize (for fiction) (shortlist):
Family Matters*2002 Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize (joint winner with
Pascal Khoo Thwe):
Family Matters*2002 Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist):
Family MattersA Fine Balance was one of the selected books in the 2002 edition of
Canada Reads, where it was championed by
actor Megan Follows.
*
Rohinton Mistry biographical and critical information by James Proctor
*
Biography from the English Department at Emory University
