I read this book such a long time ago, but I carried the memory with me everywhere. I recently re-read it, and was shocked to find how good it was. I hated to finish it, because it's like a bar of chocolate that you don't want to finish, but you gotta have more.

Pi, in case you're wondering, is neither a fruit-filled pastry OR a number. It is an Indian boy who lives in a zoo with his zoo-keeper family in Pondicherry, India. He wakes up with a giraffe in his face, and has breakfast next to hippos. His life seems wonderful, until the zoo becomes bankrupt. His family are ready to move to Canda on a boat, when the large ship sinks. Pi thinks he is the sole survivor, before he realises he isn't the only one in his lifeboat. He shares it with an Orangutan named Orange Juice, a zebra with a broken leg, a hyena with quite the appetite, and a 200-pound male Royal Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker.

As Pi struggles to survive, he finds a strong bond between himself and the tiger, and they both make their way through the unbeleivable journey.

And then there's a larger subject. Pi, a boy who is , strangely, Hindu, Islamic and Christian, doesn't get saved until a very long time. The author, Martel questions the excistence of any sort of God, and if they can perform the miracles Pi wished for.

Life of Pi is coursing with twisted reality, black humour and haunting truth. Please, please read it, and become a new person.