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
Lost Man Booker Prize give their reactions to being included. Bawden called it "astonishing actually ... I thought I knew all my books backwards but I couldn't remember what this one was about". Hazzard regretted that her husband, Francis Steegmuller, was no longer alive to witness the occasion. J. G. Farrell won the 1973 Man Booker Prize for "The Siege of Krishnapur". Bawden and Muriel Spark were previously shortlisted. Tobias Hill said Patrick White, noted for requesting that his name be struck off the 1979 Man Booker prize shortlist and known for his general disapproval of receiving awards, would be "spinning in his grave"