Rohinton Mistry Biography and latest books by Rohinton Mistry

Rohinton Mistry, an Indian born Canadian writer, is amongst the first authors of Indian origin to write in English. His first book, One Sunday won him the first prize in the Canadian Hart House Literary Contest which was followed by the Annual Contributor’s Award form the Canadian Fiction Magazine. Following this he became a full time writer with the help of the Canadian Council Grant.

Rohinton Mistry was born on July 3, 1952 in Mumbai, India. Rohinton earned his Bachelors Degree in Mathematics and Economy from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai in the year 1973. He, along with his wife, migrated to Canada where he worked in a bank as a clerk for a short time before returning to his studies. He earned his degrees in English and Philosophy form University of Toronto in the year 1982.

While he was studying in University of Toronto, he won two awards. The first was the Hart House Literary Prize for his writings which were later published in the Hart House Review; the second was the Canadian Fiction Magazine Award. Two year later, his collection of eleven short stories, Tales from Firozsha Baag was published by Penguin Books Canada. Later on it was published as Swimming Lessons and Other Stories from Firozsha Baag in the United States.

Rohinton Mistry’s second novel Such a Long Journey was published in the year 1991. This novel won him 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 also short listed for the very prestigious Trillium Award and Booker Prize. The book was also made into a movie with the same title and was released in the year 1998. The novel was later translated into five different languages: Japanese, German, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish.

Rohinton Mistry’s third novel, A Fine Balance was published in the year 1995. The novel won him the Annual Giller Prize the same year. The following year, the novel won him the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. It was also selected for the Oprah’s book Club in the year 2001. As a result of this, the book sold hundreds of thousands of copies all over North America. It also won him the Commonwealth Writers Prize in the year 1996. His fourth novel was called Family Matters. In the year 2002 he and his wife cancelled their book tour for this particular novel because he was targeted, thinking he was a Muslim by security agents at every airport.
Many of his books portrayed the diverse facets of the Indian socio-economic life. His latest book, titled The Scream, has been illustrated by Tony Urquhart. All of Rohinton Mistry’s writing are housed at York University in the Carla Thomas archives.

Submitted by Precious Pheirim.

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