Life of Pi: A novel - Hardcover

Martel, Yann

3.94

1,627,854 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0676973760 ISBN 13: 9780676973761

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

The Jungle Book meets Not Wanted On the Voyage in a triumph of storytelling and originality: a novel, as one character puts it, to make you believe in God.

Piscine Molitor Patel, nicknamed Pi, lives in Pondicherry, India, where his family runs a zoo. Little Pi is a great reader. He devours books on Hinduism, Christianity and Islam, and to the surprise of his secular parents, becomes devoted to all three religions. When the parents decide to emigrate to Canada, the family boards a cargo ship with many of the animals that are going to new zoological homes in North America, and bravely sets sail for the New World.

Alas, the ship sinks. A solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the surface of the wild blue Pacific. In it are five survivors: Pi, a hyena, a zebra, an orang-utan and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger.

With intelligence, daring and inexpressible fear, Pi manages to keep his wits about him as the animals begin to assert their places in the foodchain; it is the tiger, Richard Parker, with whom he must develop an inviolable understanding.

Yann Martel’s Life of Pi is a transformative novel: a book to delight in, to talk about and treasure. It will convince the most jaded among us – and remind the rest – that something grander is afoot in our lives than we may have realized.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

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

Review:

"A unique and original story, brilliantly told" (Guardian)

"Pi is bewitching, the tale both nihilistic and na�ve, philosophical and playful, deeply moving while always treading the line clear of schmalz" (Independent)

"Every page offers something of tension, humanity, surprise, or even ecstasy" (The Times)

"A terrific book . . . fresh, original, smart, devious, and crammed with absorbing lore" (Margaret Atwood Sunday Times)

"Ultimately uplifting" (Daily Mail)

"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)

"Martel's engaging characterization and vivid description enliven and enrich this dreamy, fantastic tale" (The Times)

"Full of clever tricks, amusing asides and grand originality" (Daily Telegraph)

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.