Life of Pi

NOW ON BROADWAY

The international bestseller and modern classic of adventure, survival, and the power of storytelling is now an award-winning play.

"A story to make you believe in the soul-sustaining power of fiction."--Los Angeles Times Book Review

After the 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 wounded zebra, an orangutan--and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger.

Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi Patel, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with the tiger, Richard Parker, for 227 days while 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 Classics
Published: 05/01/2003
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.6lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.31w x 0.94d
ISBN: 9780156027328
Audience: Young Adult

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


Award: Book Sense Book of the Year Award - Nominee


Review Citation(s):
New York Times 05/04/2003 pg. 28
BookPage 06/01/2003 pg. 25
Entertainment Weekly 06/27/2014 pg. 22

About the Author
Yann Martel was born in Spain in 1963 of Canadian parents. "Life of Pi" won the 2002 Man Booker Prize and has been translated into more than forty languages. A #1 "New York Times" bestseller, it spent eighty-seven weeks on the list and was adapted to the screen by Ang Lee. He is also the author of the novels "Beatrice and Virgil" and "Self," the collection of stories "The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios," and a collection of letters to the prime minister of Canada, "101 Letters to a Prime Minister." He lives in Saskatchewan, Canada.