One boy, one boat, one tiger…
After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan – and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary and best-loved works of fiction in recent years.
Martel has a warm way of engaging with the reader.
Its appeal has endured, with a worldwide 'readalong' of the book next month and a moniker as a 'modern classic' to boot. The moniker, in this instance, is utterly deserved ... Pi is bewitching, the tale both nihilistic and naive, philosophical and playful, deeply moving while always treading the line clear of schmalz.
Martel's engaging characterization and vivid description enliven and enrich this dreamy, fantastic tale.
The TimesExtraordinary...Life of Pi could renew your faith in the ability of novelists to invest even the most outrageous scenario with plausible life.
New York Times Book ReviewA terrific book...fresh, original, smart, devious, and crammed with absorbing lore.
Margaret Atwood, Sunday TimesA hilarious novel, full of clever tricks, amusing asides and grand originality.
Daily TelegraphEvery page offers something of tension, humanity, surprise, or even ecstasy.
The TimesA unique and original story, brilliantly told.
Guardian'An inventive, shocking and ultimately uplifting story.'
Daily MailYann Martel is a vivid and entrancing story-teller.
Sunday Telegraph'Martel's witty and wise novel, with its echo of William Golding's Pincher Martin, has a teasing plausibility about it that taps into our desire for extraordinary stories that just might be true.'
Metro'A novel that radiates, Ancient Mariner-style, a hallucinogenic spirituality. Superb, right down to its teasing coda.'
The Face'Here is a writer with a talent as fabulous as the tale that he - and his Pi - have to tell.'
Spectator'An extraordinary novel.'
New York TimesWINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2002 'In Life of Pi we have chosen an audacious book in which inventiveness explores belief. It is, as the author says, 'a novel which will make you believe in God' - or ask yourself why you don't.'
Lisa Jardine, chair of Booker Judges 2002'Life of Pi is black magic and reality, a subtle and sophisticated fable about belief in its many guises. . . Booker judges capable of appreciating an imagination in full flight need look no further.'
Irish Times'A riotous imaginative excursion.'
New Statesman' This is compelling storytelling, and Martel is always ready to reel in the reader with a well-turned phrase or tasty aside.'
The Independent'Life of Pi is a hilarious novel, full of clever tricks, amusing asides and grand originality. Its subtext exists in that delightful area between the possible and the fantastical, and its tome reminded me of Italo Calvin's Our Ancestors. As to whether it makes you believe in God - well miracles can happen, so why not to you?'
Daily Telegraph'In its subject and its style, this enormously lovable novel is suffused with wonder: a willed innocence that produces a fresh, sideways look at our habitual assumptions, about religious divisions, or zoos versus the wild, or the possibility of freedom. As Martel promises in his author's note, this is fiction probing the imaginative realm with scientific exactitude, twisting reality to 'bring out its essence'.
Justine Jordan, Guardian'Absurd, macabre, unreliable and sad, deeply sensual in its evoking of smells and sights, the whole trip and the narrator's insanely curious voice (which evokes and intellectual humming-bird compelled to sip deep from every possible blossom) suggests Joseph Conrad and Salman Rushdie hallucinating together over the meaning of The Old Man and the Sea and Gulliver's Travels.'
Financial Times'impressive enough to make you, as the old man said, believe in God. . . Martel has hit on a marvellous notion and revels in elaborating it. . . The story positively sparkles with originality.'
The Scotsman'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. . . Life of Pi is not just a readable and engaging novel, it's a finely twisted length of yarn. . . Like its noteworthy ancestors, among which I take to be Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels, the Ancient Mariner, Moby Dick and Pincher Martin, it's a tale of disaster at sea coupled with miraculous survival - a boys' adventure for grownups.'
Margaret Atwood, Sunday Times'Life of Pi is a great adventure story, the sort that comes along rarely and enters a select canon at once. This would be enough to justify its existence, but it is also rich in metaphysics, beautifully written, moving and funny. It's an allegory about faith and the value of religious metaphor - not just for the converted, but for all of us.'
Michel Faber, Scotland on Sunday'Another reminder of the largely unsung excellence of the Canongate list. The fiercely independent Scottish outfit remains an outpost of rare quality and distinction, and this exceptional, understated novel is certainly a worthy addition to its output . . . This kiss of death notwithstanding, it would not be out of place on the Booker shortlist.'
The Bookseller'Those who would believe that the art of fiction is moribund - let them read Yann Martel with astonishment, delight and gratitude.'
Alberto Manguel'It is a story so magical, so playful, so harrowing and astonishing that it will make you believe imagination might be the first step (to believing in God). . . Every page offers something of tension, humanity, surprise, or even ecstasy.'
Glyn Brown, The Times
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