Life of Pi

Description

One boy, one boat, one tiger….

Pi Patel is an unusual boy. The son of a zookeeper, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior, a fervent love of stories, and practices not only his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes. The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The Japanese authorities who interrogate Pi refuse to believe his story and press him to tell them “the truth.” After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second story, a story much less fantastical, much more conventional-but is it more true?

Life of Pi is at once a realistic, rousing adventure and a meta-tale of survival that explores the redemptive power of storytelling and the transformative nature of fiction. It’s a story, as one character puts it, to make you believe in God.

Reviews

“This enormously lovable novel is suffused with wonder” – Guardian

“A terrific book … Fresh, original, smart, devious, and crammed with absorbing lore”– MARGARET ATWOOD

“Every page offers something of tension, humanity, surprise, or even ecstasy”– The Times

“Vivid and entrancing”– Sunday Telegraph

“Extraordinary … Life of Pi could renew your faith in the ability of novelists to invest even the most outrageous scenario with plausible life”– York Times Book Review

Author Biography

Yann Martel was born in Spain in 1963 of Canadian parents. After studying philosophy at university, he travelled and worked at odd jobs before turning to writing. In addition to the Man Booker Prize-winning Life of Pi, which has been translated into over fifty languages and has sold over thirteen million copies worldwide, he is the author of the novels Self, Beatrice and Virgil and The High Mountains of Portugal, the stories The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, and the collection of letters to the Prime Minister of Canada, What is Stephen Harper Reading? He lives in Saskatchewan, Canada.