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Life of Pi
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Life of Pi
Unavailable
Life of Pi
Audiobook11 hours

Life of Pi

Written by Yann Martel

Narrated by Alexander Marshall and Jeff Woodman

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

Martel's novel tells the story of Pi—short for Piscine—an unusual boy raised in a zoo in India. Pi's father decides to move the family to live in Canada and sell the animals to the great zoos of America. The ship taking them across the Pacific sinks and Pi finds himself the sole human survivor on a lifeboat with a hyena, an orangutan, a zebra with a broken leg and Bengal tiger called Richard Parker. Life of Pi brings together many themes including religion, zoology, fear, and sheer tenacity. This is a funny, wise, and highly original look at what it means to be human.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMay 9, 2012
ISBN9781598873443
Author

Yann Martel

YANN MARTEL was born in Spain in 1963 of Canadian parents. Life of Pi won the 2002 Man Booker Prize (among other honors) and was adapted to the screen in the Oscar-winning film by Ang Lee. Martel is also the author of the novels The High Mountains of Portugal, Beatrice and Virgil, and Self, the collection of stories The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, and a collection of letters to the prime minister of Canada, What Is Stephen Harper Reading?. He lives in Saskatchewan, Canada.

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Reviews for Life of Pi

Rating: 3.9137401241066625 out of 5 stars
4/5

13,013 ratings537 reviews

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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I finished this and that's the best I can say about it. I kept reading in the hope that it would get better and I'd discover what all the fuss was about, well it didn't and I didn't.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Enjoyable read until...

    Disappointed he ripped off Max and The Cats.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Good but weird. I have NO idea what that island was all about.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wonderful, surprising story that held me through to the end. I can understand why this was made into a movie--lush visuals, powerful conflict and the human struggle all wrapped into one.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It took awhile to read it. I found it an interesting read but not something I could sit and consume in one or two sittings.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Oh, my goodness! What a fabulous book. I love novels that make you think and question. "The Life of Pi" is beautifully written, with some wonderfully descriptive passages, but it is the ending that blows you away. This would make a great VCE English novel. As a friend of mine said, "There are some books everyone should read." This is one of those books!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    GREAT book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Brilliant!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    really enjoyed this little adventure. i like how you get sucked into the life and perceptual lens of the main character. his reality becomes you own.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I listened to this on CD. The reader did a great job with the accents, really bringing the story to life. If I had been reading on the page, I might have skipped some of the meandering facts with which the story began, the information on animal behavior, and then later the unbearable tedium of life on the ocean. But having gone through it all, I was rewarded with a sense of having shared his Pi's survival. I am not sure about the coda: why the alternate version of events, the reader's choice which to believe, the horrific seemingly realistic version, or the one where the boy lives with a tiger? It seems like a standard metafiction move. I can't decide if it really added anything, but I suppose the fact that it makes me ask that question is the something that it added.Addendum: can't stop thinking about this book since the tiger mauling in San Francisco.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I had grabbed this because everyone spoke of how great the story was and that it was on many must read lists. Really have to learn to ignore those must read lists. This doesn't belong there.The author aside chapters are annoyingl. There's no point to them, they don't really help the story. Speaking of the story, it crawled with no activity for long stretches. Too much detail (which may or may not become more important later in the book.) Just wanted SOMETHING to happen.The book felt very preachy in the section where I finally gave up.I gave it three weeks, easily put it down for other reading material and just didn't care for the plot at all. Don't like the main character, which is bad. So this goes to the dud file.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I'd like to rate this book 3.5. Parts of it I would give 4 stars, but it really dragged in places with no specific reason. There was a lot of time spent discussing Pi's religions. I loved the dramatic scenes on the raft with the tiger. Very well written. A book that is so different from other novels, I always enjoy. I just don't think it was a solid 4 stars throughout the book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Listening to this book made me realize the movie was very close to what the book was about. This is a good story. An interesting story. A weird story.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    My impression of this book suffers for the circumstances under which I read it. I was ill in hospital and near bed-ridden, so the parallel of a boat drifting on the Pacific ocean and the monotony of my days in a closed room felt very much overlapped.I feel that the base story of this book is well known, or at least what makes up the bulk of the setting, and I'm not sure one can say much more without getting into a lengthy conversation about "why?" It is ponderous outside of Pi's daily survival activities, and few books have made both inclined to think and inclined to accept the face value at the same time.Perhaps I will read it again, to see just how much my state of mind was colouring my view at the time.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A shipwrecked boy has a tiger in his lifeboat.2.5/4 (Okay).The beginning and end of the book are good, but most of the story - the actual survival stuff and tiger training - was a chore to read. Maybe I would have liked it better if I hadn't already seen the movie. This is a rare instance of a movie based on a book making the book more-or-less obsolete.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I'm so damn confused. And did the middle section really need to be THAT long?! I found myself wishing the tiger had eaten him.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I read Life of Pi because I've always heard it was a good read and I agree with that after reading it. What I liked most about it was how it was set up, the beginning tells you the story being told is a look back on it from years after it happened, gives back ground, then delivers the sea tale, and the finally the huge twist that completely changes the readers perspective on the book. I didn't see the twist coming at all and I enjoyed that even though I felt somewhat upset that this incredible story might not be what it seems.

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    young boy on life boat with tiger and other animals; one of the top five great endings of a novel
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    What to say about a book like this?
    1) It's an incredible story.
    2) It's an incredible display of the power of imagination.
    3) It's a bit too long.

    Life of Pi is a well written story. I must admit I like the filmatisation better. The book drags on and on in parts, especially towards the beginning and the end and hence I had to put it down quite a few times. If it wasn't for the absurdness and wonder of the story itself, I would only have given it 3 stars.

    Life Of Pi (I believe it's safe to classify it as a make-you-feel-good-book) with the build-up of the character Piscine Patel, is definitely worthwhile a read. It's a pondering journey into many aspects of life and death that most people take for granted. The story telling part is enchanting without a doubt but the conclusion and the drawing of the threads of seem to be loosely wound in what feels like an attempt to finish the book.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    It's a really huge crying shame everyone was not cannibalized or drowned right off.

    But then there would be no book.

    And your point is?

    Abominable. And the parallel reality revealed at the end is worse than the fantasy.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Boring. Small children will enjoy It!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is a book about God. If you don't want to read about God do not read this book. This is not a book about a tiger or a boy, even though they are there. This is really a book about God and about man's insignificance in the face of the Almighty.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Life of Pi is one of those rare books that makes a strong impression on both the book world and movie world. I have watched both the movie in theaters and read the book. I found that the actually written hard copy of the story provided much more insight and power than that of the silver screen. What Yann Martel has done is something of the olden times of storytellers. The words had a certain spark and feel to it and turned words into whole new adventure.Martel documents the story of a young boy named Piscine Patel, or as he will soon to be called, Pi. He's young Indian boy living with his family in a small town. They own a zoo, though they aren't the richest family in town. After the political turmoil in India in the 1970s, the family decides to leave the country for Canada and sell the zoo. On the voyage across the Pacific, their ship sinks in the midst of a storm and Pi finds himself the lone survivor of the wreck along with a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena, and a Bengal tiger. The rest of the book is dedicated to their story of survival and hardship in the face of adversity and a seemingly impossible task.It's story based on true events and is taken directly from Mr. Patel (Pi) himself many years after the events in the book. The story is not just a rehash of some newspaper story or something that was created. It was deeply personal and insightful in a way that you cannot create without interviewing someone. The passages ringed with the true feelings and emotions Mr. Patel must have experienced out on the Pacific and Martel did an amazing job translating that into the words, sentences, and scenes throughout the book.I did not expect how Life of Pi started out. It told the early story of Pi and his experiments dabbling into different types of religions. He was born a Hindu, but began to explore Christianity and Islam, creating a balance between the three and somehow bridging a gap between the different religions. This idea of harmony between what many would see as completely different ideologies would play out later through the book in the form of harmony between man and beast. It was a bit tough and slow to get through, but also provided and interesting and insightful look into the people and the mentality of the time.This is a book that brings a sense of humility and helplessness in the grand scheme of life, yet at the same time giving hope for every individual. Here we have a young boy, thrown into a terrible situation without any wrongdoing on his part. Nothing he could have done could have prevented such a disaster. He is faced with insurmountable odds for survival, yet he has the will to live and takes it upon himself to preserve until he reaches land and safety. Life of Pi is one of those books that blends fiction and reality in a way that is almost impossible to separate. The ending is less of a decisive resolution to the story than an open question. Books and words are not the definitive truth of the world and sometimes the best stories are not the truth. I really loved Life of Pi. It was different, it was compelling, and it spoke volumes about the value of all life on the planet. It is a book to turn to in dark times as an inspiration to continue, as an candle in the night, lighting you way through the darkness. Some parts were a bit slow, but it doesn't detract from the overall story.Martel has created one of the books of the generation and will be remembered for years to come.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Piscene "Pi" Patel grows up in a zookeeper's family in India. His father teaches him to respect and fear the animals. He embraces Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. When the family moves to Canada, their cargo ship sink, but Pi is thrown into a lifeboat with an injured zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a tiger named Richard Parker. Pi miraculously survives, landing in Mexico some 227 days later. The survival story is captivating. The ending catches the reader by surprise. This memorable book will stick with me a long time. It deserved the Booker prize it won.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A great 100-chapter story until the magical realism really, very suddenly, "jumps the shark" around chapters 86-96. This kind of format and style, reminded me of another masterpiece that dies towards the end -- Huckleberry Finn. The last couple chapters help to regain the momentum. I guess it is worth reading.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The movie made such a splash, that I was reluctant to read Life of Pi, but am glad I did. There are many themes at work here-- life and family, spirituality, politics, immigration, survival and psychology. Pi's relationship with and mastery of a tiger with whom he's swept out to sea, is perfectly believable in the context of his upbringing as a zookeeper's son. His quest for spirituality under the bemused gaze of his sectarian, modern parents reminds one of how all young people become aware and start to sort out the world. Equal parts tragedy, comedy and adventure, it is a worthwhile read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I'm both starting to get used to listening to novels on audio and feeling more and more like I'd do better to read the book the old-fashioned way. When I got to the end, I really would have liked to have been able to turn back and read some of the beginning again. I'm more likely to do that if there are physical pages to turn than if I have to try to search through the recording for the spot I'm seeking.But then, I tried to start reading this one a few years ago and couldn't get interested, and it wasn't until I listened to the audio while walking around my neighborhood that I was able to break into the novel. And I'm glad I got into it finally because I did enjoy it. It was interesting to me to see how well I could submerge myself in a story that was so incredible (in the sense of something not being credible).A few weeks before I listened to Life of Pi on my neighborhood rambles, I used my walks to listen to the second season of the Serial podcast. The common setting---my evening walks---and the similar themes of imprisonment, survival, hope, and faith tied the stories of Pi Patel and Bowe Bergdahl together in my mind. I did find the ending lacking, but a really great ending in a novel is a rare and beautiful thing, so I don't really expect to find one. It was nice to have all of the minute detail in the beginning of the novel pay off as the story progressed.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is one of those novels where the meaning resides in a single line towards the very end. Yes, I liked the story with the animals best, too. The opening section is also particularly well done, where Martel displays his cheeky humour.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Ohmygosh. So, so, SO good. The writing was excellent, with lovely turns of phrases everywhere you look (or listen, as the case may be). And the story was fabulous; I am a great fan of mythologies and the importance of Truth over fact. This novel embraces that idea in such a fantastic way that I was honest-to-goodness gleeful when I finished it. Were I still teaching, I would absolutely assign this as required reading in my mythology course. Easily one of the best books I read this year, or any other year.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was a kind of adventure story with a theological undercurrent that seems to suggest that your own life story would be better with God. Whether God exists or not. For me, this religious aspect of the book did not intrude too much and indeed it works better as a straightforward adventure yarn, even if it was semi-fantastical. The story starts very slowly and only really comes alive with the tension and happenings in the lifeboat.