Staff Pick
I admit it: Before reading Life of Pi, I thought, There's just no way that Yann Martel can write a whole book about a teenage boy and a tiger stranded together in a lifeboat for 277 days. But I was so wrong; he pulls it off beautifully. You will love this utterly charming and unforgettable book. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Pi Patel is sixteen when his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship. The ship sinks, and Pi is left alone on a lifeboat, his only companions stranded zoo animals: a hyena, an orangutan, a zebra, and a Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger dispatches all but Pi; his fear, knowledge, and cunning must guide him to coexist with the tiger for 227 days at sea.
First published ten years ago, Life of Pi took the world by storm, selling millions of copies and hitting every major bestseller list. Now, timed to coincide with the anticipated 3-D feature film directed by Ang Lee and starring Tobey Maguire, comes a movie tie-in edition of the book with millions of devoted fans, including Barack Obama, who called it "an elegant proof of God, and the power of storytelling."
Review
"A story to make you believe in the soul-sustaining power of fiction." Los Angeles Times Book Review
Review
"A gripping adventure story....Laced with wit, spiced with terror, it's a book by an extraordinary talent." San Jose Mercury News
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"A terrific book....Fresh, original, smart, devious, and crammed with absorbing lore." Margaret Atwood
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"An impassioned defense of zoos, a death-defying trans-Pacific sea adventure a la Kon-Tiki, and a hilarious shaggy-dog story....This audacious novel manages to be all of these." The New Yorker
Review
"Readers familiar with Margaret Atwood, Mavis Gallant, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje and Carol Shields should learn to make room on the map of contemporary Canadian fiction for the formidable Yann Martel." Chicago Tribune
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"Life of Pi is a real adventure: brutal, tender, expressive, dramatic, and disarmingly funny....It's difficult to stop reading when the pages run out." San Francisco Chronicle
Synopsis
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK of 2002
Pi Patel, a God-loving boy and the son of a zookeeper, has a fervent love of stories and practices not only his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam. When Pi is sixteen, his family and their zoo animals emigrate from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship. Alas, the ship sinks — and Pi finds himself in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi. Can Pi and the tiger find their way to land? Can Pi's fear, knowledge, and cunning keep him alive until they do?
About the Author
Yann Martel was born in Spain in 1963 of Canadian parents. After studying philosophy at university, he worked at odd jobs — tree-planter, dishwasher, security guard — and traveled widely before turning to writing at the age of twenty-six. He is the author of a collection of short stories; three novels, including the internationally acclaimed 2002 Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi, which spent fifty-seven weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and Beatrice and Virgil; and a collection of letters to the Prime Minister of Canada, What is Stephen Harper Reading? Yann Martel lives in Saskatchewan, Canada.