Mordecai Richler was born in Montreal in 1931. In a career that spanned more than forty years, Richler wrote ten acclaimed novels, numerous screenplays, and several books of non-fiction. His last novel, Barney’s Version (1997), was the winner of The Giller Prize, the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour, the QSPELL Award, and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Novel in the Caribbean and Canada region. Richler also won two Governor General’s Awards and was shortlisted twice for the Booker Prize.
Mordecai Richler died in Montreal in July 2001.