Life Of Pi  (English, Paperback, Martel Yann)

Life Of Pi is an extraordinary tale about a boy named Pi, who was stranded on a lifeboat with Richard Parker, a Royal Bengal tiger. This book is beautifully written, and brings to light the opposing concepts of faith and science.

Summary Of The Book

Life Of Pi, published in 2001, is a fantasy adventure novel that revolves around an Indian teenger named Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, and a Royal Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Pi is the son of a zoo owner, and he lives with his family in Pondicherry. The young boy is a Hindu, but also practices Islam and Christianity. The Patels decide to move to Canada, and so they load all the zoo animals onto a Japanese cargo ship. Unfortunately, they encounter a storm, and the ship sinks. Pi manages to reach the lifeboat, and finds out that the boat carries another passenger, a 450 pound Bengal tiger. The human protagonist soon realizes that he needs to tame Richard Parker in order to survive. On the 26-foot craft, Pi develops a parental relationship with the wild cat. He uses food as positive reinforcement, and seasickness as punishment. Life Of Pi describes various incredible events that take place while these two creatures float across the Pacific Ocean for 227 days.

Life Of Pi is not a classic lifeboat-survival story. The novel beautifully explores two completely opposite human perspectives, namely spirituality and science. This book has sold over ten million copies globally. It has won the 2002 Man Booker Prize For Fiction, the 2003 South African Boeke Prize, and the 2004 Asian/Pacific American Award For Literature In Best Adult Fiction for years 2001–2003. In 2012, the book was adapted into a major motion picture, and it won four awards at the 85th Academy Awards.

About Yann Martel

Yann Martel, born in 1963, is a Canadian author. Some of his other works include Beatrice and Virgil, Self, and We Ate The Children Last.

From 1981 to 1984, the author attend Trent University in Ontario. However, he graduated in 1985 with a BA in Philosophy from Concordia University. Martel did odd jobs like dishwashing, and tree planting. He then spent a year in India, where he visited religious shrines, and zoos. His first published fictional work, Seven Stories, was released in 1993. He was a professor in the Department of Comparative Literature at the Free University of Berlin in Germany. In 2005, it was announced that he would join the University of Saskatchewan as a scholar-in-residence. Martel is the first Canadian to represent the Washington Arts Commission, and is the winner of the 2001 Hugh MacLennan Prize For Fiction. He currently resides in Saskatoon, Canada.