Life of Pi: Deluxe Illustrated Edition (Hardcover)

~ (Author), (Illustrator)
Key Phrases: stern bench, locker lid, rain catcher, Richard Parker, Orange Juice, Plan Number Six (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Yann Martel's imaginative and unforgettable Life of Pi is a magical reading experience, an endless blue expanse of storytelling about adventure, survival, and ultimately, faith. The precocious son of a zookeeper, 16-year-old Pi Patel is raised in Pondicherry, India, where he tries on various faiths for size, attracting "religions the way a dog attracts fleas." Planning a move to Canada, his father packs up the family and their menagerie and they hitch a ride on an enormous freighter. After a harrowing shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker ("His head was the size and color of the lifebuoy, with teeth"). It sounds like a colorful setup, but these wild beasts don't burst into song as if co-starring in an anthropomorphized Disney feature. After much gore and infighting, Pi and Richard Parker remain the boat's sole passengers, drifting for 227 days through shark-infested waters while fighting hunger, the elements, and an overactive imagination. In rich, hallucinatory passages, Pi recounts the harrowing journey as the days blur together, elegantly cataloging the endless passage of time and his struggles to survive: "It is pointless to say that this or that night was the worst of my life. I have so many bad nights to choose from that I've made none the champion." At one point in his journey, Pi recounts, "My greatest wish--other than salvation--was to have a book. A long book with a never-ending story. One that I could read again and again, with new eyes and fresh understanding each time." It's safe to say that the fabulous, fablelike Life of Pi is such a book.

First published in 2002, Martel's breathtaking breakout novel became an international bestseller and went on to win the Man Booker Prize, and was also named Amazon.com's Best Book of 2002. In 2005, after an international competition, Croatian artist Tomislav Torjanac was selected to illustrate a special edition of Life of Pi that features 40 stunning illustrations that present a new perspective on this modern classic. --Brad Thomas Parsons

---

Amazon.com Exclusive: Outtakes from Tomislav Torjanac's Early Illustrations for Life of Pi

Tomislav Torjanac's Artist Statement

Island Study

Lifeboat Study

"I quite deliberately dressed wild animals in tame costumes of my imagination."

"Only when they threw me overboard did I begin to have doubts..."

"And what a thump it was."

"I threw the mako towards the stern."

---

Review

Winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize for Fiction

"Let me tell you a secret: the name of the greatest living writer of the generation born in the sixties is Yann Martel."--L'Humanité

"A story to make you believe in the soul-sustaining power of fiction and its human creators, and in the original power of storytellers like Martel." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review
“If this century produces a classic work of survival literature, Martel is surely a contender.’--The Nation
"Beautifully fantastical and spirited." -- Salon

"Martel displays the clever voice and tremendous storytelling skills of an emerging master." --Publishers Weekly

"[Life of Pi] could renew your faith in the ability of novelists to invest even the most outrageous scenario with plausible life." -- The New York Times Book Review

"Audacious, exhilarating . . . wonderful. The book's middle section might be the most gripping 200 pages in recent Canadian fiction. It also stands up against some of Martel's more obvious influences: Edgar Allen Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, the novels of H. G. Wells, certain stretches of Moby Dick."--Quill & Quire

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt; Ill edition (October 7, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151013837
• ISBN-13: 978-0151013838
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 7.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #47,542 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the deluxe Life of Pi, October 7, 2007

By	Richard Cumming "richo" (cyberspace) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

If you haven't read the Life of Pi you are in for a treat. Originally published in 2002, this is a new illustrated edition and it is simply wonderful.

A teenaged boy is shipwrecked and set adrift in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with some unusual companions; a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a fierce Bengal tiger. They drift together for a long time as this savage and philosophical tale plays out.

The addition of 40 illustrations by Tomaslav Torjanac is an incredible enhancement to the book. His pictures are brilliant and colorful. Some seem almost photographic.

Re-reading the book was an absolute pleasure. I caught things I missed the first time through.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful follow up and a superb work with its exuberant images., December 6, 2007

By	Norman Goldman "Editor of Bookpleasures.com" (Montreal) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Canadian author Yann Martel's international bestseller Life of Pi was first published in 2002 and it was the recipient of the prestigious Man Booker Prize in that same year. In 2007 this work of fiction was reintroduced with a Deluxe Illustrated Edition that now includes dazzling illustrations contributed by Croatian artist Tomislav Torjanac of some of the most unforgettable scenes of the narrative.

The narrative revolves around a most outrageous tale concerning a young boy, Piscine "Pi" Molitor Patel, who lived in Pondicherry, India. Pi's father was a zookeeper and as a result Pi learned a great deal about zoos and the diverse behavior patterns of the various animals. When Pi, who is a Hindu, reaches adolescence, he decides to experiment with different religions such as Christianity and Islam for he just can't figure out how to find God or for that matter, himself.

Facing political oppression, Pi's father decides that he has had enough with the politics of Mrs. Gandhi and opts to leave India with his family for Canada. On the 21st of June 1977, Pi, who is now 16, together with his mother, father, and older brother as well as seven animals from his father's zoo begin the long trek to Canada on a Japanese cargo ship, Tsimtsum.
Unfortunately, tragedy strikes and the cargo ship mysteriously sinks somewhere in the Pacific leaving Pi the sole human survivor- the result of being miraculously tossed into a lifeboat before the ship sank.
However, Pi is not alone on the lifeboat. Joining him is a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger, a zebra, a hyena, and an orang-utan.

Pi, who now has front row seats, observes the survival of the fittest when the hyena demolishes the zebra; however, shortly thereafter the tiger devours the hyena. Pi, sensing the danger he is in, cleverly manages to avoid conflict with the tiger, which he has named, Richard Parker, by staying away from his territory on the deck of the boat.
In order to survive, Pi manages to fish and feed himself as well as the tiger. Eventually, the two are washed ashore upon a strange island that apparently was formed with tightly knit edible algae.
Pi meanders about and finds some strange fruit of containing human teeth in its center. He comes to the conclusion that it must have been a huge plant like organism that has previously gulped down a human.

From here the pair find their way to Mexico, where the tiger leaves Pi. By the time Pi winds up in a hospital, we learn that he has survived 227 days from the day the Tsimtsum sank. How did Pi manage to live to tell the tale? Martel puts all of this into perspective when Pi is called upon to explain to the individuals investigating the sinking of the cargo ship.

Torjanac was an excellent choice in breathing new energy into the now classic tale. It should be mentioned that Martel's English publisher came up with the idea of an illustrated edition and Martel was agreeable to the idea since in the past fiction authors as Jules Verne and Mark Twain often had their adult books illustrated.

Before executing his poignant and dazzling images, Torjanac first read the book in English and then in Croatian. He uses oil paints enhanced with the combination of digital technology. And as you will notice, all the pictures are executed from Pi's perspective. We never see his face only his elongated reddish brown, hands and feet appear on some of the illustrations. Torjanac's use of contrasting colours and perspective really take you into the scenes so marvellously imagined by Yann Martel. You feel the struggle, the hot relentless sun, the brutality of the stormy seas and Pi's efforts for survival.

The animals are drawn to perfection. For example, the painting of the black leopard contrasting with a snowy mountain peak in the background is stunning. You can sense Pi's disbelief, when he is informed that the family will be leaving India for Canada, just by looking through his eyes as they peer at his brother and parents. The scene of the storm and the sinking of the cargo ship will surely catch the eyes of the reader when Pi's hands throw a lifebuoy to the Bengal tiger.

Particularly noteworthy is the last image in the book that is quite intriguing. It is here we notice a hand pressing a button on a tape recorder, which turns into a vase full of "flowers"- so you believe! However, if you take a second peek you find that the "bouquet" is really a summary of the entire novel. Look for Pi's hands catching a fish, his mother, the hyena, the Bengal tiger, the meerkats, the carnivorous island, the Zebra jumping on the lifeboat. All the elements are cleverly assembled in a bursting posy of reddish, orange algae on a lush green background.

This second edition is a wonderful follow up and a superb work with its exuberant images that as the publisher's publicity material mentions, "offers a fantastic insight on the unique creative process between writer and illustrator."

Norm Goldman, Editor Bookpleasures & Lily Goldman, Artist

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A top pick not just for library holdings, but for gift-giving., December 2, 2007

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

After the sinking of a cargo ship only one lifeboat remains on the Pacific - housing a teen named Pi, a hyena, a zebra and a Royal Bengal tiger. Their survival and journeys makes for a winning book which transcends children's or young adult fiction to provide all ages with a gorgeous, winning contemporary folk story, and this deluxe edition is the perfect gift for capturing it all, using lovely drawings by Croatian artist Tomislav Torjanac to capture key scenes in Martel's drama. A top pick not just for library holdings, but for gift-giving.