Canongate to Release Man Booker Prize-winning Author's Yann Martel THE HIGH MOUNTAINS OF PORTUGAL, February

Canongate has acquired the UK rights in a new novel from the Man Booker Prize-winning author Yann Martel. Francis Bickmore, Publishing Director at Canongate, acquired The High Mountains of Portugal from Jackie Kaiser at Westwood Creative Artists. Rights have also been sold to Knopf Canada, Spiegel and Grau/Random House in America, Fischer in Germany and Text in Australia.

Publishing on 2nd February 2016, The High Mountains of Portugal will be Canongate's lead spring fiction title. It will be supported on publication by a UK author tour and a high-profile sales, marketing and publicity campaign.

In Lisbon in 1904, a young man discovers an old journal. It hints at the existence of an extraordinary artefact that - if he can find it - would redefine history. Some thirty-five years later, a Portuguese pathologist finds himself at the centre of a murder mystery. Fifty years on, a Canadian senator takes refuge in northern Portugal, grieving the loss of his beloved wife. Three linked stories. Three broken hearts. One exploration: what is a life without stories? The High Mountains of Portugal takes the reader on a road trip through Portugal in the last century - and through the human soul.

Life of Pi is the bestselling Booker Prize-winner in history. Twelve million copies have been sold worldwide with Canongate's editions selling over three and a half million copies. Ang Lee's film adaptation of Life of Pi won four Academy Awards in 2013, including Best Director. Other Martel titles published by Canongate are Beatrice and Virgil and The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios.

Yann Martel said, "The adventure with Canongate continues. They are my books' home in the UK, my publishing bedrock, my accomplices in literary crime. I'm delighted to be with them again. Canongate is truly a great publisher, combining passion and flair with impeccable professionalism."

Francis Bickmore, Publishing Director at Canongate added, 'The combination of warmth and curiosity in Martel's writing makes him a true modern great. There are no tigers in this fabulous new book but it does explore our relationship to the natural world, and asks from where comes our humanity.'

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Yann Martel was born in Spain in 1963. After studying philosophy at university, he worked at menial jobs and travelled before turning to writing. He is the author of the internationally acclaimed 2002 Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi, which was translated into over forty languages. Yann Martel lives in Saskatchewan, Canada.

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PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF YANN MARTEL

'Suffused with wonder' Guardian on Life of Pi

'Fresh, original, smart, devious, and crammed with absorbing lore'

Margaret Atwood, Sunday Times on Life of Pi

'Astonishing . . . every page offers something of tension, humanity, surprise or even ecstasy'
The Times on Life of Pi

'A masterpiece, no question' A.N. Wilson on Beatrice and Virgil

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