Amazon.com
Yann Martel's imaginative and unforgettable Life of Pi is a magical reading experience, an endless blue expanse of storytelling about adventure, survival, and ultimately, faith. The precocious son of a zookeeper, 16-year-old Pi Patel is raised in Pondicherry, India, where he tries on various faiths for size, attracting "religions the way a dog attracts fleas." Planning a move to Canada, his father packs up the family and their menagerie and they hitch a ride on an enormous freighter. After a harrowing shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker ("His head was the size and color of the lifebuoy, with teeth"). It sounds like a colorful setup, but these wild beasts don't burst into song as if co-starring in an anthropomorphized Disney feature. After much gore and infighting, Pi and Richard Parker remain the boat's sole passengers, drifting for 227 days through shark-infested waters while fighting hunger, the elements, and an overactive imagination. In rich, hallucinatory passages, Pi recounts the harrowing journey as the days blur together, elegantly cataloging the endless passage of time and his struggles to survive: "It is pointless to say that this or that night was the worst of my life. I have so many bad nights to choose from that I've made none the champion."

An award winner in Canada (and winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize), Life of Pi, Yann Martel's second novel, should prove to be a breakout book in the U.S. At one point in his journey, Pi recounts, "My greatest wish--other than salvation--was to have a book. A long book with a never-ending story. One that I could read again and again, with new eyes and fresh understanding each time." It's safe to say that the fabulous, fablelike Life of Pi is such a book. --Brad Thomas Parsons

I'm going to start a book ring with this one. If you want to join in please let me know and send me your location and your shipping preferences :-)

Participants so far (not in shipping order):
mrspopoff (GB)
Guadi (Portugal)
BettyBoekwurm (Portugal)
octoberskye (US)
sophias (Portugal)
carriehhh (UK)

We now have 7 participants, so I will send off the book to the first person ASAP. I made a list in shipping order, but it is not yet fixed as I don't want to close it for other participants.

The list is:
mrspopoff (UK)
guadi (Portugal)
BettyBoekwurm (Portugal) <- it's here!
sophias (Portugal)
octoberskye (US)
carriehhh (UK)
sweetdaisy (UK)
ariuca (Spain)

...
back to me

RELEASE NOTES:

I sent this one off as a bookring...

Received today - will start at the weekend.

I loved this book! It was completley different to anything I'd ever read before and that perhaps has been the appeal of this, the fact that it is so original! The story of one man's survival against the elements and a tiger is truly remarkable and would be a book that I would definitely read again.

It just arrived safe and sound.
Thanx.

Just arrived. I have another book before this one, but I'm looking forward to reading it. Thanks for sending, Guadi. And thanks for sharing oisec

I really enjoyed this book. Fantasy and reality are intertwined in a sort of twisted folk tale. I particularly liked the way small details about animal behaviour are explored and mixed into the narrative.

Thanks for sharing oisec! Sent this morning to sophias.