Introduction Like its noteworthy ancestors (Robinson Crusoe, Gullivers Travels, the Ancient Mariner and Moby Dick) Life of Pi is a tale of disaster at sea. Both a boys own adventure (for grown-ups) and a meditation on faith and the value of religious metaphor, it was one of the most extraordinary and original novels of 2002. The only survivor from the wreck of a cargo ship on the Pacific, 16 year old Pi spends 221 days on a lifeboat with a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan and a 450-pound Royal Bengal Tiger called Richard Parker.