Rohinton Mistry was born in 1952. He is a writer who was born in India and now lives in Canada. In 2012, he received the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. Each of his three novels was nominated for the Booker Prize. All of his novels take place in India and are told from the point of view of Parsis. The stories explore topics such as family life, poverty, discrimination, and the negative effects of society.
Early life and education
Rohinton Mistry was born in Bombay, India, to a Parsi family. His brother, Cyrus Mistry, is a playwright and author. He received a BA in Mathematics and Economics from St. Xavier's College, Bombay.
In 1975, he moved to Canada with his future wife, Freny Elavia. They married soon after. He worked at a bank for a time, then returned to school at the University of Toronto, where he received a BA in English and Philosophy.
Career
While studying at the University of Toronto (Woodsworth College), he became the first person to win two Hart House literary prizes for stories published in the Hart House Review. He also received the Canadian Fiction Magazine’s annual Contributor’s Prize in 1985.
Three years later, Penguin Books Canada published a collection of 11 short stories titled Tales from Firozsha Baag. The book was later published in the United States as Swimming Lessons and Other Stories from Firozsha Baag. The stories are set in an apartment complex in modern-day Bombay. One of the stories, “Swimming Lessons,” is often included in short story collections.
His second book, the 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 nominated for the Booker Prize and the Trillium Award. The book has been translated into German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, and Japanese. It was adapted into a 1998 film titled Such a Long Journey. In 2010, the book caused controversy at Mumbai University because of language used against Bal Thackeray, a leader of the Shiv Sena political party, and some remarks about Maharashtrians. The book was included as an optional text for second-year Bachelor of Arts (English) students during the 2007–08 academic year. Later, Dr. Rajan Welukar, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mumbai, used emergency powers under the Maharashtra Universities Act, 1994, to remove the book from the syllabus.
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 in November 2001. The book also won the 1996 Commonwealth Writers Prize and was nominated for the 1996 Booker Prize.
Family Matters (2002) explores the challenges of aging, a topic Mistry revisited in 2006 with the short story collection The Scream. This collection was published separately to support World Literacy of Canada and included illustrations by Tony Urquhart. Mistry’s personal papers are stored at the Clara Thomas Archives at York University.
In 2002, Mistry canceled his United States book tour for Family Matters after he and his wife were followed by security agents at every airport.