“The Life of Pi” is a fantasy adventure novel by Yann Martel. The story follows a 16-year-old boy named Pi whose family owns a zoo.

Due to a dispute with the government, his family decides to sell the zoo animals to zoos around the world. He and his family set out to immigrate to Canada on a Japanese ship, but a storm causes their ship to capsize. The disaster results in the deaths of Pi’s family.

Pi is the sole survivor, stranded on a lifeboat with a hyena, an orangutan, a zebra and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. The story follows the struggles of Pi to survive on a small lifeboat with limited resources and the man-eating tiger. During the long journey, he is forced to watch the animals fight for superiority. In the end, only he and the tiger are left. The rest of the book is Pi’s struggle for survival on the open sea.

“The Life of Pi” is a great read since Martel shows his views of animal behaviors, the struggle to survive at sea and faith. The novel provides an adventure with a mystical twist due to Pi being stranded at sea and the constant suspense due to the need for survival and the presence of Richard Parker. The novel is filled with underlying themes that the reader will need to thumb about to fully understand the book’s true message.

High school students and older audiences will truly enjoy the complexity of the book. The mature themes are more suitable for an older audience to connect Pi’s experiences and thoughts together to truly understand this novel.