Self is a novel by Yann Martel. It tells the story of a traveling writer who wakes up one morning to discover that he has become a woman. It was first published by Knopf Canada in 1996.

Plot

The narrator, at first male, explains various events from his early childhood, living with a travelling family who finally settle in Ottawa, Ontario. He goes on to explain events from his years in private school (including his parents' death), until he graduates and travels to Portugal, where he, on his eighteenth birthday, wakes up as a female.

Surprisingly unphased by her transformation, the narrator concludes her trip and begins university back in Toronto. She begins writing, and keeps travel in her life, eventually visiting such places as Spain and Thailand, to name a few. She shares romances with a select few — males and females alike. Eventually she gets published, and after graduating, moves to Montreal, where she gets a job as a waitress while continuing to write. At her job she meets Tito, her final love. But as the novel is nearing a conclusion, she is suddenly raped, by a vicious neighbour in her secluded apartment, and her body reverts to being a male again. Although this is a bit sexually graphic, it is hard to put down. At first I took the book to be based on Yann Martel's actual life but because it went beyond reality with the sexual transformations, I finally concluded it was fiction. I would love to know how much of the story is true to Martel's life. I must read Life of Pi now.

1996 novels | Books by Yann Martel | Canadian novels