Life of Pi Life of Pi Life of Pi is a Canadian fantasy 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 Who Came Early society which he did not gain in life. Steven H Silver has described the story as "a response to" L. Sprague de Camp's "Lest Darkness Fall", while Jo Walton states that it is an outright rejection of de Camp. "Black Gate" considers it "first rate", while Paul A. Carter states that, as a "tale of the modern man displaced in time to a harsh and unforgiving environment which dooms him", it is "more sophisticated" than Nat Schachner's "Master Gerard of Cambray". The Man Who Came Early "The Man Who Came Early" is a science fiction short story by Danish-American author