Life Of Pi
SynopsisPlot
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?
Story
About this book
Life of Pi, by Canadian writer Yann Martel, begins with a cargo ship going down in the Pacific. One lifeboat survives the wreck, and its passengers make an improbable group: a boy of sixteen named Pi Patel, a wounded zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a Royal Bengal tiger weighing about 450 pounds. The balance among the animals settles quickly, leaving Pi with the tiger, Richard Parker.
Pi draws on everything he knows about animal behavior, fear, and improvisation to share the lifeboat with a large predator for 227 days. The novel traces the practical details of that coexistence: fresh water, food, territory on a tiny craft, and the shifting balance between boy and tiger as weeks turn into months on open water.
When the pair finally reaches the coast of Mexico, Pi is questioned by Japanese officials investigating the shipwreck. He offers them a second account of events, one that is far more ordinary and far harder to sit with. The novel leaves a central question suspended between the two versions of the story.
