Life of Pi
Pi Patel, the son of a zookeeper in Pondicherry, is orphaned when the freighter carrying his family and their animals to Canada sinks in the Pacific, and he survives for two hundred and twenty-seven days on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Yann Martel frames the ordeal inside a second, quieter story about the author tracking Pi down in adulthood, and a final chapter in which Pi offers a rival, human-centered account of the same voyage. The novel uses the shipwreck as a parable about the stories we choose to believe, and about how faith, imagination, and survival braid together at sea.
Where Life of Pi keeps showing up
Six of our editors' lists feature this novel.
Books in conversation with Life of Pi
A few of the closest reads from our full list.
What you might want to know about Life of Pi
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Pi Patel's family is moving their zoo to Canada when their cargo ship sinks in the Pacific. He survives in a lifeboat with a 450-pound Bengal tiger. The novel asks which version of his story you would rather believe.
Life of Pi is fictional, though Yann Martel uses an opening fictional author's-note that frames it as a real account told to him in India. The premise is invented.
Yes. Life of Pi won the 2002 Booker Prize. The 2012 film adaptation directed by Ang Lee won four Academy Awards including Best Director.
Life of Pi was written by Yann Martel, published in 2003 by Harcourt.
Life of Pi is 347 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Life of Pi takes most readers 5 to 8 hours to finish.
Life of Pi is a standalone novel by Yann Martel, not part of a series.
Life of Pi is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
