Piscine Molitor Patel, the son of an Indian zookeeper in Pondicherry, narrates the strange story of his life to the novel's narrator. It's a story, as one character puts it, to make you believe in God. The Japanese authorities who interrogate Pi refuse to believe his story and press him to tell them 'the truth.' After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second story, a story much less fantastical, much more conventional-but is it more true? Life of Pi is at once a realistic, rousing adventure and a meta-tale of survival that explores the redemptive power of storytelling and the transformative nature of fiction. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days lost at sea. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger.

When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes. The son of a zookeeper, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior, a fervent love of stories, and practices not only his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam. Life of Pi by Yann Martel Winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize for Fiction Pi Patel is an unusual boy.

Life of pi by yann martel characters