Claim: Tigers are depicted in the book Life of Pi.

Life of Pi is a Canadian adventure novel by Yann Martel published in 2001 . The protagonist is Piscine Molitor `` Pi '' Patel , an Indian boy from Pondicherry who explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age . He survives 227 days after a shipwreck while stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker .   The novel has sold more than ten million copies worldwide . It was rejected by at least five London publishing houses before being accepted by Knopf Canada , which published it in September 2001 . The UK edition won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction the following year . It was also chosen for CBC Radio 's Canada Reads 2003 , where it was championed by author Nancy Lee .   The French translation L'Histoire de Pi was chosen in the French CBC version of the contest Le combat des livres , where it was championed by Louise Forestier . The novel won the 2003 Boeke Prize , a South African novel award . In 2004 , it won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature in Best Adult Fiction for years 2001 -- 2003 . In 2012 it was adapted into a theatrical feature film directed by Ang Lee with a screenplay by David Magee .