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About Life of Pi

"Vikas Adam is the perfect narrator for this incredible novel. He delivers its lyrical style with energy and complete believability.... Definitely not a Disney movie, this is a realistic, heart-thumping account, which Adam delivers with verve, intelligence, and sensitivity. More than a fable, often humorous, always compelling, this tale is infused with the wonder of a teenage boy who finds himself in an unimaginable situation for 227 days. Must listening! Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2019 Audies Finalist." ( AudioFile magazine) 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 and a fervent love of stories and practices not only his native Hinduism but also Christianity and Islam. When Pi is 16, 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. Cover design by Vaugh Andrews. Cover illustration by Andy Bridge.