Mordecai Richler

Mordecai Richler (January 27, 1931 – July 3, 2001) was a Canadian writer from Montreal, Quebec. He is best known for his novels set in Montreal's Jewish community; including ''The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz'' (1959) and ''Barney's Version'' (1997). His 1970 novel ''St. Urbain's Horseman'' and 1989 novel ''Solomon Gursky Was Here'' were nominated for the Booker Prize. He is also well known for the ''Jacob Two-Two'' fantasy series for children.

In addition to his fiction, Richler was a journalist, and his non-fiction writing included essays about the Jewish community in Canada, and about Canadian and Quebec nationalism. Richler's ''Oh Canada! Oh Quebec!'' (1992), a book version of an essay that originally appeared in ''The New Yorker'', generated considerable controversy.

For his literary and cultural contributions, Richler was awarded Companionship of the Order of Canada in 2001. He was also a two-time recipient of the Governor General's Award for Literature (1968 and 1971), and winner of the Giller Prize (1997). Charles Foran for ''Historica Canada'' called Richler "without question one of Canada’s greatest writers." Provided by Wikipedia