Author Rohinton Mistry appointed to Order of Canada

ROHINTON Mistry is among the 69 new appointments to the Order of Canada announced this week by Governor General David Johnston. Mistry was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada.
The new appointees included six Companions (C.C.), 14 Officers (O.C.) and 49 Members (C.M.). These appointments were made on the recommendation of the Advisory Council for the Order of Canada. Recipients will be invited to accept their insignia at a ceremony to be held at a later date.
The Order of Canada, one of our country’s highest civilian honours, was established in 1967, during Canada’s centennial year, to recognize outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation. Over the last 45 years, more than 6 000 people from all sectors of society have been invested into the Order.
The citation for Mistry said: “For his acclaimed work as an author of international renown.”

MISTRY was born in 1952 in Mumbai, India. He earned his Bachelor’s in Mathematics and Economics from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. According to Wikipedia, he emigrated to Canada following with his wife-to-be Freny Elavia in 1975 and they married there shortly after his arrival in 1975, settling in Toronto where he studied at the University of Toronto and received a BA in English and Philosophy. He worked in a bank for a while, before returning to studies, leading up to a degree in English and philosophy.
While attending the University of Toronto he won two Hart House literary prizes (the first to win two), for stories which were published in the Hart House Review, and Canadian Fiction Magazine’s annual Contributor’s Prize for 1985. Two years later, Penguin Books Canada published his collection of 11 short stories, Tales from Firozsha Baag. It was later published in the United States as Swimming Lessons and Other Stories from Firozsha Baag.
His second book, the novel Such a Long Journey, published in 1991, 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 shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize and for the Trillium Award. It has been translated into German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Japanese, and has been made into the 1998 film Such a Long Journey, according to Wikipedia.
His third book, and second novel, A Fine Balance (1995), won the second annual Giller Prize in 1995, and in 1996, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. It was selected for Oprah’s Book Club in November 2001. It won the 1996 Commonwealth Writers Prize and was shortlisted for the 1996 Booker prize.
Family Matters is a consideration of the difficulties that come with ageing, which Mistry returned to in 2008 with the short fiction The Scream (published as a separate volume, in support of World Literacy of Canada, with illustrations by Tony Urquhart).
According to Wikipedia, his books portray diverse facets of Indian socioeconomic life; as well as Parsi Zoroastrian life, customs, and religion. Many of his writings are markedly “Indo-nostalgic.”

Published on VoiceOnline