100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock πŸ‡³πŸ‡Ώ

Enjoy overnight NZ-wide delivery from our NZ-owned independent bookstore! πŸŽ‰

Self

By Yann Martel
0.0 (0 reviews)
3.43 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating. ( 3,127 ratings, 240 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Self is Yann Martel's first novel, exploring the fluid boundaries between fiction and autobiography, as well as the complex intersections of identity, gender, violence, and happiness. Through a deeply reflective narrative, the book challenges readers to contemplate what defines a man and a woman, and how personal and fictional truths intertwine.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$3299
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This novel will appeal to readers interested in literary fiction that probes deep philosophical questions about identity and human experience. Fans of thoughtful, character-driven stories with a mix of humour and tragedy will find Self especially rewarding.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

A fictional autobiography of a young writer which takes the reader to Canada, Portugal, Greece, Turkey and elsewhere. This story of love, sex and ambiguity is the first novel by the Canadian author of the award-winning short-story collection, "The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios".

Self by Yann Martel - the acclaimed author of Life of Pi - is the fictional autobiography of a young writer; edgy, funny and devastating, with a startling twist at its very heart . . .

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

What is fiction? What is autobiography? How do the two meet?

What is a man? What is a woman? How do the two meet?

What is violence? What is happiness? How do the two meet?

Yann Martel wrote Self, his first novel, to try to answer these questions.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Critics praise Self as a bold and original work, highlighting Yann Martel as one of the greatest writers of his generation. Reviews commend its compelling storytelling, rich humour, and poignant blend of tragedy. Martel's masterful writing and penetrating insights create an exhilarating and unforgettable reading experience, capturing the seamless world of childhood with wit and profound cultural references.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780571219766

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 07 April 2003

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Faber & Faber

Edition: Main

Audience: Tertiary education

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 21.0mm

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 200.0mm

Weight: 275g

Pages: 352

Collections

Fiction General Fiction Literary Fiction Yann Martel

About the Author

Yann Martel was born in Spain in 1963. After studying philosophy at university, he worked at odd jobs and travelled before turning to writing at the age of twenty-six. He is the author of the internationally acclaimed 2002 Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi, which was translated into thirty-eight languages and spent fifty-seven weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List. His collection of short stories, The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, and his first novel, Self, both received critical acclaim. Yann Martel lives in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Also by Yann Martel

View all
  • Beatrice and Virgil
    Destiny can take many shapes. For Henry, a writer struggling to finish a book about the Holocaust, it arrives in the form of a puzzling envelope from a stranger. The envelope takes him into a taxidermist's workshop. Filled with lovingly preserved animals from all corners of the globe, this place is unlike anywhere he has ever been. Among the hundreds...
    By Yann Martel
    Paperback
    $2700
    Elsewhere:
    $3000
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The High Mountains of Portugal
    In Lisbon in 1904, a young man named TomΓ‘s discovers an old journal. It hints at the existence of an extraordinary artefact thatβ€”if he can find itβ€”would redefine history. Travelling in one of Europe's earliest automobiles, he sets out in search of this strange treasure. Thirty-five years later, a Portuguese pathologist devoted to the murder mysteries of Agatha Christie finds...
    By Yann Martel
    Paperback
    $2700
    Elsewhere:
    $3000
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Life Of Pi
    One boy, one boat, one tiger . . . After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan, and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. The scene is set...
    By Yann Martel
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Son of Nobody
    From the Man Booker Prize-winning author of Life of Pi comes a modern and imaginative retelling of the epic Trojan War. 'The past is never done with- always the song continues.' Harlow Donne has sacrificed his life to the study of the Classical world. So when he is invited to Oxford University to work on an obscure collection of papyrus...
    By Yann Martel
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Life of Pi
    Winner of the 2022 Olivier Award for Best New Play Life of Pi will make you believe in the power of theatre (Times). After a cargo ship sinks in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, there are five survivors stranded on a lifeboat - a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, a Royal Bengal tiger, and a sixteen-year-old boy named...
    By Yann Martel
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Life of Pi
    Life of Pi
    WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE The international bestseller and modern classic of adventure, survival, and the power of storytelling is now an award-winning play. "A story to make you believe in the soul-sustaining power of fiction."β€”Los Angeles Times Book Review After the sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild blue Pacific. The only...
    By Yann Martel
    Paperback
    $5200
    Available
    Ships in 2-3 weeks
  • Life of Pi [Theater Tie-In]
    Life of Pi [Theater Tie-In]
    The international bestseller and modern classic of adventure, survival, and the power of storytelling is now an award-winning play. After the sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a wounded zebra, an orangutan, and a 450-pound Royal Bengal...
    By Yann Martel
    Paperback
    $5200
    Available
    Ships in 2-3 weeks

More from General Fiction

View all
  • The Wedding People
    'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people β€” but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...
    By Alison Espach
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Throne of Glass Box Set (Paperback)
    Enter the realm. Unleash the darkness. Live the legend. Discover the worldwide phenomenon of the #1 New York Times-bestselling Throne of Glass series in this gorgeous 8-book box set! In a land without magic, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She has no love for the vicious king who rules from his throne of glass, but she has not...
    By Sarah J. Maas
    Set
    $12400
    Elsewhere:
    $15500
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Goal
    Welcome to Briar U!Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy!Read The Goal now for the perfect forced proximity romance! She's good at achieving her goals . . . College senior Sabrina James has her whole future planned out: graduate from college, kick...
    By Elle Kennedy
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Red Rising
    The first book in the incredible New York Times bestselling series Darrow is a Helldiver, toiling beneath the surface of Mars. As a member of the Red caste, he performs grueling labor in the belief that his sacrifice will enable future generations to one day inhabit the surface of the Red Planet. The Reds are humankind's lowest caste, living in...
    By Pierce Brown
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    The Ballad of Falling Dragons [Special Deluxe edition]
    The No.1 Sunday Times bestselling sensation When the Moon Hatched continues with the second book in The Moonfall Series, The Ballad of Falling Dragons… Raeve’s thirst for vengeance continues to burn, as does her love for Kaan Vaegor – a staunch beacon from a past she’s yet to face. With Rekk’s blood still fresh on her hands, she learns the...
    By Sarah A. Parker
    Hardback
    $5999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Project Hail Mary
    Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, the SUNDAY TIMES and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of The Martian, offers a gripping new adventure in hard science fiction. With endorsement from notable figures such as Barack Obama and a slew of five-star reviews, this novel promises a thrilling and intellectually stimulating journey. Ryland Grace, a lone astronaut, finds himself on a...
    By Andy Weir
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    (4)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Carl's Doomsday Scenario
    Join Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat Princess Donut as they fight fantastical creatures and deadly mobs in the second book in the smash-hit Dungeon Crawler Carl series -now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition Now on the third floor, Carl and Donut have to fight harder than ever. They've already proven that a Coast Guard vet and once-and-forever...
    By Matt Dinniman
    Hardback
    $4699
    Elsewhere:
    $6000
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Score
    Welcome to Briar U! Get ready for your newest obsession... Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy! Read The Score now for the perfect friends with benefits romance! He knows how to score, on and off the ice... Allie Hayes is in crisis mode. With graduation looming, she still doesn't have...
    By Elle Kennedy
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Golden Son
    ENDER'S GAME meets THE HUNGER GAMES in this, the second in an extraordinary trilogy from an incredible new voice.'I'm still playing games. This is just the deadliest yet.' Darrow is a rebel forged by tragedy. For years he and his fellow Reds worked the mines, toiling to make the surface of Mars inhabitable. They were, they believed, mankind's last hope....
    By Pierce Brown
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Dylan's Pick Dylan's Pick
    Theo of Golden
    THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON'For anything to be truly good, there must be love in it. Nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core.' One morning, a stranger arrives in the town of Golden. No one knows who he is or where he came from…His name is Theo and he's arrived there by chance –...
    By Allen Levi
    Paperback
    $2899
    Elsewhere:
    $3499
    (5)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    On Mystic Lake
    One of the greatest storytellers of our time - Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads Sing Annie Colwater's only child has just left home for school in England. On that same day, her husband of twenty years confesses that he's in love with a younger woman. Left alone in the beautiful California house which was once a home, Annie...
    By Kristin Hannah
    Paperback
    $3100
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • East of Eden
    Set against the backdrop of the fertile Salinas Valley in California, East of Eden is a profound and compelling novel by John Steinbeck, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. This masterful narrative charts the intertwining destinies of two familiesβ€”the Trasks and the Hamiltonsβ€”across multiple generations. Steinbeck's intricate portrayal of human nature and enduring exploration of moral themes...
    By John Steinbeck
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.

General Fiction lists from the team

Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!

The Latest at Book Hero

View all