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Booker winner accused of plagiarism

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON NOV. 8. Canadian novelist, Yann Martel, who won this year's Booker Prize, has been accused of plagiarising his prize-winning novel "Life of Pi'' from the work of a leading Brazilian writer, Moacyr Scliar.

Mr. Scliar, who apparently enjoys a high reputation in Latin America, has alleged that "Life of Pi" is based on his successful novel "Max and the Cats" in which — like in Mr. Martel's story, a teenaged boy spends many days with a deadly animal after a shipwreck. While in Mr. Scliar's book it is a panther, in "Life of Pi" it becomes a Bengal tiger.

Mr. Martel, who had earlier said that he had been inspired by a tale he had heard in India, now acknowledges that the idea came from "Max and Cats", but says the rest of the story is his own. "I saw a premise that I liked and I told my own story with it. I don't feel I have done something dishonest."

Mr. Scliar, however, insists that the idea is his "intellectual property" and Mr. Martel should have at least informed him before adapting it. "In a certain way I feel flattered that another writer considered my idea to be so good. But on the other hand, he used that idea without consulting me or even informing me," the 65-year-old author said.

He said he was particularly hurt by Mr. Martel's remark that having picked up the idea from a review of "Max and Cats" he did not care to read the book itself.

"Why put up with a brilliant premise ruined by a lesser writer'' Mr. Martel is quoted as having said. The remark is seen in bad taste and a measure of ignorance in the West about Latin American literature.

Mr. Martel is also accused of contradicting himself, and fudging facts. His claim that he read a review of "Max and Cats" in the New York Times Review of Books by John Updike has turned out to be false. The journal has no record of such a review, and it is now suspected that Mr. Martel did read the book, but does not want to acknowledge it.

Mr. Martel joins a long list of writers who have faced similar allegations— including J.K. Rowling and a previous Booker winner, Graham Swift. Some describe it as a "storm in a tea cup" saying nobody can claim a monopoly on ideas. After all, there are only "seven original plots", as The Times pointed out.

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