Yann Martel’s 6 best books

Yann Martel chatted to Michele Magwood recently about his new book The High Mountains Of Portugal.

• Read the interview here

At the end of the conversation, Martel shared a list of his favourite books.

 
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. Not at all the dusty old classic some might imagine it to be. It’s an astounding roadtrip through hell, purgatory and heaven, featuring an amazing cast of characters. I’d recommend the translation by the American poet John Ciardi.
 
 
 
 
 
The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy. The first book (of 101 that I finally sent him over the course of four years) that I sent the then Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, a notable non-reader of books. It’s a perfect example of the power of literature. It’s the simple tale of a man dying, hardly 80 pages in length, yet you can’t read it without being both entertained and elevated.
 
 
 
 
Knut Hamsun’s Hunger. A mesmerising tale of a starving man wandering the streets of Kristiania (now Oslo) in the late 19th century. It opened my eyes when I first read it.
 
 
 
 
 
 
The short stories of Franz Kafka. Weird, wonderful, prophetic (and also full of animals).
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Disgrace by JM Coetzee. My favourite living writer. His writing is so plain yet illuminating. How does he do it? I keep asking myself that question.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel. There, something contemporary. A really creepy dystopian novel set in a near-future world in which a devastating disease has wiped out most of the planet.
 
 
 
 
 
 
•Listen to Yann Martel’s interview on the Magwood on Books podcast:

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Related stories:

• The most exciting new books of 2016, from Autumn to Zero K
• Sunday Read: The new novel from Yann Martel, the bestselling Booker Prize-winner in history

Book details

• The High Mountains Of Portugal by Yann Martel
  EAN: 9781782114710
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• The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
  EAN: 9781840221664
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• The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy
  EAN: 9781593080693
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• Hunger by Knut Hamsun
  EAN: 9781530150366
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• Franz Kafka Stories: 1904 – 1924 by Franz Kafka
  EAN: 9780349106595
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• Disgrace by JM Coetzee
  EAN: 9780099289524
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• Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel
  EAN: 9781447268987
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