The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccomatios
Awards & Recognition
Winner of the 1991 Journey Prize
Included in the 1991-1992 Pushcart Prize Anthology
Rights Sold
Audio: HighBridge
Bulgaria: Prozoretz
Canada: Knopf
China: Crown (Complex)
Czech: Argo
Finland: Tammi
Fr. Canada: Boreal
Germany: S. Fischer
Holland: Prometheus
US: Harcourt
Hungary: Europa Konyvkiado
Israel: Kinneret
Italy: Edizione e/o (title story)
Korea: Jakkajungsin
Poland: Znak
Russia: Sophia
Spain: Destino
Sweden: Brombergs
UK: Canongate
The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios
Critical Acclaim for
“These are stunning stories; they are drawn, like Pi , from the far reaches--not stretches--of the author's inventiveness. The title story is a masterpiece by any standard...the sheer luminosity of Martel's prose style opens these stories' relevance and allure to a wide audience.”
–Booklist
“Martel's slip of a book contains just four of his pre-Life of Pi stories, but they pack a powerful punch. With uncommon dexterity, Martel manages to inject real, poignant feeling into cleverly conceived experimental fictions.”
–Entertainment Weekly
“The electric energy of a world premiere certainly leaps off the pages of this book. … as memorable and evocative as a good overture. … Masterful … Not only is he one of a handful of writers who can entice readers to willingly join a death march, he makes them feel lucky to be there. … exhilarating … Martel is not just a writer but a musician, too. He knows how to make words sing.”
–Sunday Star Ledger (Newark)
“No doomsayer could ever claim an absence of substantial taste for fictional experimentation in a world where Umberto Eco, Dave Eggers and Yann Martel sell as many books as they do. … hugely inventive … extraordinary … wildly clever … What [The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios] seems to mean, among other things, is how much of the focus of fictional creativity has now shifted North of the Canadian border, what with Martel, Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje and Alice Munro. Which, on second, third and fourth thoughts, should surprise no one.”
–Buffalo News
“It’s the perfect gift for the person who would appreciate the literary equivalent of tickets to the Cirque du Soleil. Each of these stories is a performance, a high-wire act in which the author sets himself an unusual challenge and dazzles us as he pulls it off.”
–Washington Post
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“A small masterpiece … a serious and convincing work that demands to be read.”
–Guardian (London)
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“…boffo, stop-the-presses kind of stuff…”
–Zsuzsi Gartner, Quill & Quire
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“Yann Martel’s brilliant storytelling … shines brightly.”
–The Globe and Mail
“Having delivered a nail biting narrative with Life of Pi, Martel [offers] four meditative stories that test the limits of the form.”
–Library Journal
“Let me tell you a secret: the name of the greatest living writer of the generation born in the Sixties is Yann Martel.”
–l’Humanité
“Each of the four stories, including the simple but effective “Manners of Dying” (a record of a condemned man’s last hours), packs a sucker punch of emotion.”
–Washington Post
“Pathos is leavened with inventiveness and humor in this collection...These are exemplary works of apprenticeship, slight yet richly satisfying.”
–Publishers Weekly
“Many of Yann Martel’s stories have fantastical curves … turns of magical possibility that evoke Calvino or Borges.”
–Kingston Whig-Standard
“These three stories and a novella share the clever plotting and rich humanism that helped make 2002’s Pi such a smash. … Martel’s storytelling talent shines through.”
–People (4 stars)
“Yann Martel regards narration as a practical form of humanism, as enlightened idealism, far apart from both pessimism and cynicism. Even in the most desperate situation, he finds a spark of hope, which gives reason to continue to live. His novel "Life of Pi" is a hymn to sceptical humbleness, tolerance and the solidarity between creatures. If there is the possibility of a distrustful lurking tiger and a shipwrecked orphan coexisting peacefully on a float, paradise can't be lost. The worldwide success of his novel encouraged Martel to revise and reissue his collection of short stories, which didn't get the attention in 1994 it deserved.”
–Frankfurter Allegmeine Zeitung
“This is one of those rare debuts that raises real hope and shows a principled talent excitingly capable of further growth.”
–Observer (London)
“It is heartening to read a writer whose succinct powers of description are equal to the imaginative sharpness of a content that exists on several levels at the same time.”
–Tribune (London)
“Having delivered a nail-biting narrative with Life of Pi, Martel chooses not to repeat himself, here offering four meditative stories that test the limits of the form. … Elusive and thought-provoking, though sure to confound anyone who reads for plot, this collection is recommended for public and academic libraries.”
–Library Journal
“Yann Martel’s new, strong voice weaves together our smallest anxieties and memories with the sentences and executions passed upon all of us by war, crime and life … Martel has that rare talent of making fiction true and thus painful yet compelling.”
–John Ralston Saul
“Many of Yann Martel’s stories have fantastical curves … turns of magical possibility that evoke Calvino or Borges.”
–Kingston Whig-Standard