is one of only of two writers to have won Canada’s most prestigious literary award, the Giller Prize, twice: in 1994 for The Book of Secrets and in 2003 for The In-Between World of Vikram Lall. His latest work, The Assassin's Song, was also short-listed for the prize in 2007. Vassanji was born in Kenya and raised in Tanzania. He attended MIT and U Penn before moving to Canada in 1978, having specialized in theoretical nuclear physics. In 1989 he published his first novel, The Gunny Sack, which won the Commonwealth Regional Prize. Vassanji is the author of six novels, two collections of short stories, a memoir of his travels in India, and a biography of Mordecai Richler. In 2005, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada. He lives in Toronto.

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