Life of Pi [Paperback]

Some books defy categorisation: Life of Pi, the second novel from Canadian writer Yann Martel, is a case in point: just about the only thing you can say for certain about it is that it is fiercely and admirably unique. The plot, if that’s the right word, concerns the oceanic wanderings of a lost boy, the young and eager Piscine Patel of the title (Pi). After a colourful and loving upbringing in gorgeously-hued India, the Muslim-Christian-animistic Pi sets off for a fresh start in Canada. His blissful voyage is rudely interrupted when his boat is scuppered halfway across the Pacific, and he is forced to rough it in a lifeboat with a hyena, a monkey, a whingeing zebra and a tiger called Richard. That would be bad enough, but from here on things get weirder: the animals start slaughtering each other in a veritable frenzy of allegorical bloodlust, until Richard the tiger and Pi are left alone to wander the wastes of ocean, with plenty of time to ponder their fate, the cruelty of the gods, the best way to handle storms and the various different recipes for oothappam, scrapple and coconut yam kootu. The denouement is pleasantly neat. According to the blurb, thirtysomething Yann Martel spent long years in Alaska, India, Mexico, France, Costa Rica, Turkey and Iran, before settling in Canada. All those cultures and more have been poured into this spicy, vivacious, kinetic and very entertaining fiction. --Sean Thomas --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

'Extraordinary...Life of Pi could renew your faith in the ability of novelists to invest even the most outrageous scenario with plausible life.' New York Times Book Review

This enormously lovable novel is suffused with wonder. It[probes] the imaginative realm with scientific exactitude, twisting reality to 'bring out its essence'. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Absurd, macabre, deeply sensual- suggests Conrad and Rushdie hallucinating together over the meaning of The Old Man and the Sea and Gulliver's Travels. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Life of Pi is a great adventure story, the sort that comes along rarely. It is also rich in metaphysics, beautifully written, moving and funny. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

So magical, so playful, so harrowing and astonishing... Every page offers something of tension, humanity, surprise, or even ecstasy. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orangutan - and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary and best-loved works of fiction in recent years.

After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, one solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The crew of the surviving vessel consists of a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan, a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger and Pi – a 16-year-old Indian boy. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary pieces of literary fiction of recent years.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Yann Martel was born in Spain in 1963, of Canadian parents. Life of Pi, his second novel, was published to international acclaim in over forty countries and won the 2002 Booker Prize. He has also written a number of collections of short stories, including The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, also published by Canongate. He is currently working on his next novel.

LIFE OF PI
by Yann Martel

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(From the Author's Note)

Later, in Toronto, among nine columns of Patels in the phone book, I found him, the main character. My heart pounded as I dialed his phone number. The voice that answered had an Indian lilt to its Canadian accent, light but unmistakable, like a trace of incense in the air. "That was a very long time ago," he said. Yet he agreed to meet. We met many times. He showed me the diary he kept during the events. He showed me the yellowed newspaper clippings that made him briefly, obscurely famous. He told me his story. All the while I took notes. Nearly a year later, after considerable difficulties, I received a tape and a report from the Japanese Ministry of Transport. It was as I listened to that tape that I agreed with Mr. Adirubasamy that this was, indeed, a story to make you believe in God.

It seemed natural that Mr Patel's story should be told mostly in the first person, in his voice and through his eyes. But any inaccuracies or mistakes are mine. It also seemed natural that the end of the story should come first, that the beginning should be in the middle, and that the story should come last. Such is the logic of fiction. A story is always better appreciated if its ending is known first. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.