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Life of Pi : a novel

ISBN: 0156027321
ISBN: 9780156027328
ISBN: 0151008116
ISBN: 9780151008117
Physical Description: xii, 319 pages ; 24 cm print
Edition: First U.S. edition.
Publisher: New York : Harcourt, [2001]
Copyright: &copy;2001

Martel, Yann (author.).

Summary: The precocious son of a zookeeper, 16-year-old Pi Patel is raised in Pondicherry, India, where he tries on various faiths for size, attracting "religions the way a dog attracts fleas." Planning a move to Canada, his father packs up the family and their menagerie and they hitch a ride on an enormous freighter. After a harrowing shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. It sounds like a colorful setup, but these wild beasts don't burst into song as if co-starring in an anthropomorphized Disney feature. After much gore and infighting, Pi and Richard Parker remain the boat's sole passengers, drifting for 227 days through shark-infested waters while fighting hunger, the elements, and an overactive imagination.