Booker Prize. A reviewer for the Sydney Morning Herald, noting that Martel himself had called the novel "terrible" and expressed a wish that it "disappear", agreed that the work suffered from a "serious crisis of identity", and lacked the power of Life of Pi. The Montreal Mirror went further, calling Self "lame... A pastiche of autobiography and post-modern plot twists, it was haunted by an off-putting tone of smug precociousness." The Toronto Star reviewer objected to Self's protagonist's "self-satisfied air", but praised the work for its deft touch and compelling narrative. A writer in The Independent described the book's handling of gender change as "crude confusion", while The Hindu described the book as "interesting ideas juxtaposed against not-so-inspiring writing". Publication history Martel received in 1991 a grant of $18,000 from the Canada Council to write Self, which was published in Canada in 1996, with a British launch the same November. See also Orlando: A Biography, a novel with a similar premise References 1996 Canadian novels Novels by Yann Martel Knopf Canada books English-language novels Novels about rape 1996 debut novels