When Pi is about 16 years old, his father decides to relocate his family to Canada to escape the increasingly fraught political situation of India in the 1970s. In fact, he is intensely religious and practices the faiths of Hinduism, Islam and Christianity with equal zeal. Pi Patel is a curious teenager with a lifelong love for both animals and religion. Life of Pi, then, is a survival story, religious parable, and coming-of-age tale rolled into one. Although the similarity between the two ideas generated controversy after Martel’s novel became a bestseller, both authors have publicly recognised that the two books are very different. But when the boat sinks, he finds himself stuck in a lifeboat with a jaguar formerly of the Berlin Zoo. In this blink-and-you’ll-miss-it allusion, Martel acknowledges that his story is based on Scliar’s own Max and the Cats, in which a young Jewish man flees Nazi Germany on a ship bound for Brazil. Buried in Martel’s author’s note is an oft-overlooked detail: he thanks Moacyr Scliar for the ‘spark of life’ that inspired his story. Thanks to huge critical acclaim, as well as a 2008 film adaptation directed by Ang Lee, the novel has sold over a million copies and regularly finds itself discussed in schools, bookclubs and wherever anybody loves fiction with a magical-realist twist.Īctually, the novel was embroiled in controversy when it was first published. Pi must draw on all the knowledge gleaned from his childhood growing up in Pondicherry Zoo, as well as his inner reserves of faith and endurance, to survive this desperate ordeal. Even those who haven’t read the novel have probably heard of the story: its the tale of a devout Indian boy who becomes stranded in a lifeboat with a 450-pound Bengal tiger as his only companion. Introductionįaith, friendship, fiction, floating adrift at sea – all are themes explored in Life of Pi, a 2002 Man Booker Prize winning novel by Yann Martel. Watch this Moral of the Story video explainer exploring the hidden meanings behind The Life of Pi by Yann Martel.
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