Life of Pi
A boy, a Bengal tiger, and 227 days on the open Pacific. Only one of them was supposed to survive.
The Better Story
Yann Martel's 2001 Booker Prize winner follows Pi Patel, a zookeeper's son from Pondicherry who practises Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam simultaneously. When the cargo ship carrying his family to Canada sinks, Pi finds himself alone on a lifeboat with an injured zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. What follows is a meditation on survival, storytelling, and why humans need narrative to make sense of the unbearable.
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"I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent.
"Yann Martel · Life of Pi
Martel spent two years in India researching the novel after his previous book failed commercially. He has said the idea came from a brief review of a Brazilian novel about a castaway with an animal.
Life of Pi won the 2002 Booker Prize and sold over 15 million copies. Ang Lee's 2012 film adaptation won four Academy Awards including Best Director and was groundbreaking in its use of digital effects.