Product Description

Life of Pi needs little introduction. Since it was first published in 2002 it has entered mainstream consciousness and remains one of the most extraordinary works of fiction in recent years.

In October 2005 Canongate launched a competition with The Times to find an artist to illustrate Yann Martel’s international bestseller. Soon the competition expanded as the Globe and Mail and The Age newspapers also launched a search in Canada and Australia.

From thousands of entries, Croatian artist Tomislav Torjanac was chosen as the illustrator for this new edition of Life of Pi.

‘My vision of the illustrated edition of Life of Pi is based on paintings from a first person's perspective -- Pi's perspective. The interpretation of what Pi sees is intermeshed with what he feels and it is shown through use of colours, perspective, symbols, hand gestures, etc.

‘The idea behind this approach is a kind of an extension of Mr. Martel's idea as expressed in this quote: "It seemed natural that Mr. Patel's story should be told mostly in the first person -- in his voice and through his eyes. But any inaccuracies or mistakes are mine." ’ Tomislav Torjanac

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #876 in Books
• Published on: 2003-05-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 348 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Some books defy categorisation: Life of Pi, the second novel from Canadian writer Yann Martel, is a case in point: just about the only thing you can say for certain about it is that it is fiercely and admirably unique. The plot, if that’s the right word, concerns the oceanic wanderings of a lost boy, the young and eager Piscine Patel of the title (Pi). After a colourful and loving upbringing in gorgeously-hued India, the Muslim-Christian-animistic Pi sets off for a fresh start in Canada. His blissful voyage is rudely interrupted when his boat is scuppered halfway across the Pacific, and he is forced to rough it in a lifeboat with a hyena, a monkey, a whingeing zebra and a tiger called Richard. That would be bad enough, but from here on things get weirder: the animals start slaughtering each other in a veritable frenzy of allegorical bloodlust, until Richard the tiger and Pi are left alone to wander the wastes of ocean, with plenty of time to ponder their fate, the cruelty of the gods, the best way to handle storms and the various different recipes for oothappam, scrapple and coconut yam kootu. The denouement is pleasantly neat. According to the blurb, thirtysomething Yann Martel spent long years in Alaska, India, Mexico, France, Costa Rica, Turkey and Iran, before settling in Canada. All those cultures and more have been poured into this spicy, vivacious, kinetic and very entertaining fiction. --Sean Thomas

Sunday Times, May 2002, reviewed by Margaret Atwood
Yann Martel’s third work of fiction, Life of Pi, is a terrific book. It's fresh, original, smart, devious, and crammed with absorbing lore.

Guardian, 25 May, 2002
This enormously lovable novel is suffused with wonder. It[probes] the imaginative realm with scientific exactitude, twisting reality to 'bring out its essence'.

Customer Reviews

possibly one of my favourite books of all time
I loved this book and was gutted when I finished it... It's such an unusual book, I've never read anything like it - it's also very different to the only other book I've read by Yann Martel, The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios.

The fact that Yann Martel manages to sustain your interest, faith and belief in what is, for a lot of the book, essentially a story about a boy and a tiger is one of the extraordinary feats of this book.

I was surprised to read from other reviews that some people had read this and found it changed their life. Don't buy this book expecting that - [as an aside, I think that it's rare that one book has the same effect on different people... it's better to discover your own life-changing book as a surprise whilst reading it!] but if you enjoy a beautifully written, darn good yarn, this is the one for you!

Good read but didn't change my life
I was really excited to read this book because a lot of people had told me it changed their lives. People had even told me it made them believe in God so I was expecting something special and was eagerly awaiting to be converted. The story did keep me gripped and I liked it overall but I was dissapointed that it only offered the 'wager argument' as a good enough reason to be religious.

As a novel it's great and I would give it 5 stars. The only thing that made me mark it lower was it didn't meet my expectations when it came to theology.

Interesting journey
An excellent read. Whilst the setting and the story is fictional (and should be read as such), the unassuming way in which the author explores various profound subjects is both educational, entertaining and thought provoking.