Life of Pi

Pi Patel is an extraordinary boy. The son of a zookeeper, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior and a deep passion for the stories and practices of not only his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam. When Pi was sixteen, his family emigrated from India to North America on a Japanese cargo ship with zoo animals bound for new homes. The ship sank. Pi found himself alone in a lifeboat, with only a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. The tiger quickly took everyone else out except Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allowed him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days adrift at sea. When they finally reached the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker fled into the jungle, never to be found again. The Japanese authorities interrogating Pi refused to believe his story and pressured him to tell them "the truth." After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second story, one that is less fantastical and more conventional—but is it more true?