Life of Pi

This is one of the most peculiar books I have ever read. Life of Pi is about a boy's search for God and his quest for survival after the sinking of the ship where he and his family where immigrating from India to Canada. Mostly gruesome but with some humour (like the boy being named after the Piscine Molitor, in Paris, or the chance meeting of Pi's spiritual guides with his parents in the street), the narrative is rich with feeling, philosophy and detail.
Worth reading if only for its originality.


Synopsis

Like its noteworthy ancestors (Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels, the Ancient Mariner and Moby Dick) Life of Pi is a tale of disaster at sea. Both a boys' own adventure (for grown-ups) and a meditation on faith and the value of religious metaphor, it was one of the most extraordinary and original novels of 2002. The only survivor from the wreck of a cargo ship on the Pacific, 16 year old Pi spends 221 days on a lifeboat with a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan and a 450-pound Royal Bengal Tiger called Richard Parker ...