The best-selling author of the Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi is in town this week as one of the stars of the inaugural Canberra Writers Festival, with the capital his first stop on a tour to promote his latest book.

The High Mountains of Portugal is a meditation on grief, split into three short stories.

Speaking shortly after landing from a long flight from his hometown of Saskatoon in Canada, he said he relished the chance to meet more readers and learn about Australia's writing landscape.

The father of four young children said reading was of the utmost importance, particularly for people in positions of power.

"We live in a literate society, so if you're at the top of it, it strikes me you have to read," he said.

"A police chief, the head of a hospital, the head of a corporation, a prime minister - to me they should read because I don't know how else you can know the human condition. Otherwise you only know of your own tight little life.

"I'm not saying a book a week, but you have to have a book by your bedside table that makes you be someone else every night for at least 20 minutes before you fall asleep. That's enough. It's like a vaccination."

Martel has form when it comes to prescribing such self-help: he spent four whole years, from 2007-2011, trying to convince then Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to read more books.

He was moved to start a two-person book club with Mr Harper after realising his country's conservative leader cared little for the arts.

He sent Mr Harper a new book every two weeks, accompanied by a two-three page letter explaining why the book was important and discussing some of its themes.

The books, mostly works of fiction and under 200 pages, ranged in genre and theme.

"I sent everything - highbrow, lowbrow, international," he said.

"I sent him an Agatha Christie, I sent him a Harlequin romance, a Mills and Boon, everything, plays, poetry collections. I sent him a Virginia Woolf… They were usually under 200 pages, because the usual excuse that people give for not reading is that they don't have time."

His efforts – 101 books in all – were to no avail; Mr Harper failed to respond to a single letter.

"He was not willing to engage in a dialogue, which to me reflects who he was," he said.

"I did this specifically with Harper because he's a tight, little, narrow man who did great harm to Canada. His record was largely negative, what he did not do rather than what he did do. So that was my little effort to bridge that gap."

He said Canada's current prime minister, Justin Trudeau, a former drama teacher with a degree in English, probably didn't need much instruction when it came to reading.

And interestingly, US President Barack Obama was moved to send him a letter, unprompted, after reading Life of Pi with one of his daughters.

This, and the fact that all 101 letters sent to Mr Harper were eventually published as book, meant his efforts were not in vain.

Yann Martel will be speaking about The High Mountains of Portugal at Llewellyn Hall at the Australian National University on Friday, August 26 at 6.30pm. For bookings and more information, visit canberrawritersfestival.com.au.