Life of Pi, Deluxe Illustrated Edition
Yann Martel's imaginative and unforgettableLife of Piis 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." 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, fablelikeLife of Piis such a book.First published in 2002, Martel's breathtaking breakout novel became an international  bestseller and went on to win the Man Booker Prize, and was also named Amazon.com's Best  Book of 2002. In 2005, after an international competition, Croatian artist Tomislav Torjanac  was selected to illustrate a special edition ofLife of Pithat features 40 stunning  illustrations that present a new perspective on this modern classic.--Brad Thomas  ParsonsAmazon.com Exclusive: Outtakes from Tomislav Torjanac's Early Illustrations  forLife of PiTomislav Torjanac's Artist StatementIsland StudyLifeboat Study"I quite deliberately dressed wild animals in tame costumes of my  imagination.""Only when they threw me overboard did I begin to have doubts...""And what a thump it was.""I threw the mako towards the stern."