Life of Pi sort of with a capital 'S' – something that would direct my life." He spoke of being lonely and needing direction in his life, and found that writing the novel met this need. The name of Martel's tiger, Richard Parker, was inspired by a character in Edgar Allan Poe's nautical adventure novel "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket" (1838). In this book, Richard Parker is a mutineer who is stranded and eventually cannibalized on the hull of an overturned ship (and there is a dog aboard who is named Tiger). The author also had in mind another occurrence
Life of Pi Pi" as "an elegant proof of God, and the power of storytelling." In October 2005, a worldwide competition was launched to find an artist to illustrate "Life of Pi". The competition was run by Scottish publisher "Canongate Books" and UK newspaper "The Times", as well as Australian newspaper "The Age" and Canadian newspaper "The Globe and Mail". Croatian artist Tomislav Torjanac was chosen as the illustrator for the new edition, which was published in September 2007. A 2012 adaptation directed by Ang Lee and based on an adapted screenplay by David Magee was given a wide release in the United