Life of Pi -- Yann Martel, Hardcover

Winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize for Fiction

Pi Patel is an unusual boy. The son of a zookeeper, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior, a fervent love of stories, and practices not only his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes. The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The Japanese authorities who interrogate Pi refuse to believe his story and press him to tell them the truth. After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second story, a story much less fantastical, much more conventional-but is it more true?
Life of Pi is at once a realistic, rousing adventure and a meta-tale of survival that explores the redemptive power of storytelling and the transformative nature of fiction. It's a story, as one character puts it, to make you believe in God.


Author: Yann Martel
Publisher: Mariner Books
Published: 06/04/2002
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.35lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.38w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9780151008117
Age Range: 14-UP

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 5.7
Point Value: 16
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 65915 / Life of Pi

Award: Tayshas Reading - Commended
Award: Colorado Blue Spruce Award - Nominee
Award: Book Sense Book of the Year Award - Nominee
Award: Man Booker Prize - Winner
Award: Green Mountain Book Award - Nominee

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 04/08/2002 pg. 200
Kirkus Reviews 05/01/2002 pg. 613
Booklist 05/15/2002 pg. 1576
Booksense '76 Jul/Aug 2002 07/01/2002 pg. 1
Library Journal 06/15/2002 pg. 95
New York Times 07/07/2002 pg. 5
Entertainment Weekly 11/08/2002 pg. 110
USA Today 11/11/2002 pg. 1
New York Times 12/08/2002 pg. 63
Christian Century 02/08/2003 pg. 34
New York Review of Books 03/27/2003 pg. 17
Voice of Youth Advocates 06/01/2003 pg. 139
Best of Book Sense/First 5 Yrs 04/01/2004 pg. 1
Outside 10/01/2007 pg. 66