Best seller and winner of the Man Booker Prize (who's recipients are citizen of the Commonwealth; Martel is Canadian who's teacher/diplomat father took him around the world, India being among those places; Martel researched intensely for Life of Pi which took almost 4 years to complete). Hardly can go wrong. I've been eyeing this book on the shelves of the best seller fiction at Barnes & Noble for quite sometimes. Well here I go

The book centers on an Indian boy who moved to Canada.. his voice is quite distinctive and you get immediately attached to it (much like Susie Salmon's in the Lovely Bones). The author brings up very interesting points about zoology and religion, disparate but quite fitting topics in this novel. The boy's background will come front and center after a shipwreck leaves him stranded alone with a few animals, including a tiger

In literary circles, it seems the treatise of Indian voices in our mordern culture has been quite popular. Another novel on Indian life (in India) called A Fine Balance by Mistry is a favorite among critics of the field

Start was strong but the whole survival bit on the lifeboat while interesting and well-written kinda falls flat, I mean it's just so bleak and sad and depressing.. there is however a couple of interesting scene at the end, first with the revelation of a mysterious and almost unbelievable island and finally with the closing when Pi recounts his trip to two investigators of the ship wreck.. it's a good payoff and almost makes the voluminous tale worthy..