Richard C. Morais (born October 25, 1960) is a

Canadian-American Canadian Americans is a term that can be applied to American citizens whose ancestry is wholly or partly Canadian, or citizens of either country that hold dual citizenship. The term ''Canadian'' can mean a nationality or an ethnicity. Canadians ...

novelist and journalist. He is the author of three books, including ''

The Hundred-Foot Journey ''The Hundred-Foot Journey'' is a novel written by Richard C. Morais and published in 2008. It was adapted into a feature film of the same name in 2014. Plot It is a story about how the hundred-foot distance between a new Indian restaurant a ...

'', which is an international bestseller and has been adapted as a film by

DreamWorks DreamWorks may refer to: * DreamWorks Pictures, an American film production company of Amblin ** DreamWorks Television, an American television production company and division of the film studio ** DreamWorks Records, an American record label and f ...

Early life

Morais, the youngest of four sons, was born in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, to an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

mother and

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

father of

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

descent. Morais spent most of his formative years in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, attending the private British school,

Inter-Community School Zürich The Inter-Community School Zürich (ICS or ICSZ) is a private, independent, international, co-educational day school and offers a comprehensive educational programme in English for children from ages of 3 to 18. The school is international in cha ...

, and the American International School of Zurich. His mother, a New Yorker, became a

Jungian Analytical psychology ( de , Analytische Psychologie, sometimes translated as analytic psychology and referred to as Jungian analysis) is a term coined by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, to describe research into his new "empirical science" ...

analyst at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich. Morais attended

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Supervision system, Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sara ...

, graduating in 1981. There he became a

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

Career

In 1983, Morais married Susan Agar, another

graduate then working at

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

, and they moved to

Carroll Gardens Carroll Gardens is a neighborhood in the northwestern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Taking up around 40 city blocks, it is bounded by Degraw and Warren Streets (north), Hoyt and Smith Streets (east), Ninth Street or the Gowan ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. In 1984, Morais began working as a fact-checker and junior reporter for ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

''. In 1986 the couple moved to London so Morais could work as a Forbes European Correspondent. A ''Forbes'' cover story he wrote in 1986 about the Parisian fashion and business mogul, Pierre Cardin, led to a book contract with

Bantam Press Bantam Press is an imprint of Transworld Publishers which is a British publishing division of Penguin Random House. It is based on Uxbridge Road in Ealing near Ealing Broadway station Ealing Broadway is a major single-level interchange sta ...

. Morais left ''Forbes'' in 1988 and moved with his wife to Paris to research the

unauthorized biography An unauthorized biography is a biography written without the subject's permission or input. The term is usually restricted to biographies written within the subject's lifetime or shortly after their death; as such, it is not applied to biographi ...

, ''Pierre Cardin: The Man Who Became a Label'', which was published in the U.K. in 1991. Morais returned to London after his book was published, to become ''Forbes'' magazine's European Correspondent, Senior European Correspondent, and, finally, European Bureau Chief. By the time he moved back to America in 2003, he had written many cover stories for Forbes. Having joined Forbes in 1984, Morais left Forbes in 2009 after 25 years. In 2008, Morais' first novel, ''

'', was published by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

in India. It is based in a town called Lumière, which was based on Agari, a Swiss mountain village Morais had visited as a child. An extended version of the book was published in the U.S. in 2010 by Scribner, and it was named a ''New York Times'' "Editors Choice". The book was adapted for film by

DreamWorks Pictures DreamWorks Pictures (also known as DreamWorks SKG and formerly DreamWorks Studios, commonly referred to as DreamWorks) is an American film company and distribution label of Amblin Partners. It was originally founded on October 12, 1994 as a li ...

and released in August 2014. The film was directed by

Lasse Hallström Lars Sven "Lasse" Hallström (; born 2 June 1946) is a Swedish film director. He first became known for directing almost all the music videos by the pop group ABBA, and subsequently became a feature film director. He was nominated for an Acade ...

and stars Dame Helen Mirren,

Om Puri Om Prakash Puri (18 October 1950 – 6 January 2017) was an Indian actor who appeared in mainstream commercial Hindi films as well as Bengali, Kannada,English, Punjabi and one Telugu film, as well as independent and art films and also starred ...

Manish Dayal Manish Patel (born June 17, 1983), known professionally as Manish Dayal, is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Raj Kher in The CW hit teen series '' 90210'' as well as in the films '' The Hundred Foot Journey'' (2014) and ''Vice ...

, and

Charlotte Le Bon Charlotte Le Bon (born 4 September 1986) is a Canadian actress, artist, former model and television presenter. She is known for her work in the Canal+ talk show '' Le Grand Journal'', and the films '' Yves Saint Laurent'', ''The Hundred-Foot Jo ...

. In 2013, Scribner published his novel, ''Buddhaland Brooklyn'', a work about a repressed Japanese priest who is sent to Brooklyn to open up a temple. In 2014 Morais is currently the editor at Barron’s ''Penta'' magazine, an American finance magazine's quarterly publication and website serving the information needs of wealthy families. In 2015 Morais was awarded the Citizen Diplomat of the Year Award from the Global Ties U.S. a

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

-based

non-partisan Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias towards, a political party. While an Oxford English Dictionary definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., in most cases, nonpartisan refers sp ...

501(c)(3) non-profit organization A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 501 ...

Works

;Non-fiction: * ''Pierre Cardin: The Man Who Became a Label.'' Bantam (UK). 1991. . Biography. ;Novels: * ''

''. HarperCollins. 2008. * ''Buddhaland Brooklyn''. Scribner. 2012. * ''The Man with No Borders: A Novel''. Little A. 2019.

References

External links

"Richard C. Morais."
at

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morais, Richard C, 1960 births Living people American male novelists American male journalists American people of Canadian descent American people of Portuguese descent Writers from Lisbon Canadian people of American descent Converts to Buddhism American Buddhists Canadian Buddhists 21st-century American novelists Sarah Lawrence College alumni 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers People from Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn