This is a 2001 novel by Yann Martel. I listened to the audiobook version.
I haven't seen the movie, and I didn't know anything about the book, and just picked up the audiobook at the library when I had just a minute before I had to run.
Soon, this book blossoms into an un-put-downable thriller in unlikely settings. Piscene "Pi" Patel is the 16 year old son of a zoo keeper from Pondicherry. His family decide to wind down the zoo and emigrate to Canada. On the way on a cargo ship, they all perish with the ship except for Pi and a couple of the animals. As it all shakes out pretty soon, Pi is left with Richard Parker, a 450 pound adult Bengal Tiger. He somehow survives the Tiger, the elements and the sea for 227 days before coming up ashore in Mexico.
Being from the very south Indian province (Tamil Nadu) the protagonist hails from, I found the cultural references surprisingly accurate and nuanced. Except for his name itself, perhaps. Toward the end (of the main narrative), the book was a bit stretched out, but I didn't mind it too much. The prose was really good, and the narrative kept surprises coming. Enjoyable.
And that's the first layer. Beneath it is a deeper and subtler layer of "truth" as tantalizingly alluded to toward the end. It is one of the best "twists" I have come across in any story. To even call it a twist is cheapening it - it's brilliant, and deeply satisfying, no matter what you believe.
To be honest, it took me a couple of days after I finished the book to really understand the ending. It's just brilliant.
PS:
I read that Barack Obama read the book with his daughter, and wrote to the author, in which he said "It is a lovely book — an elegant proof of God, and the power of storytelling." I think that's awfully clever, and to me just shows what a smart man Obama is!
