Life of Pie

The book is introduced as a story born of an interview suggestion given to the author during his trip to India after the lackluster success of his first book. The story of this shipwrecked man is said to be a story to make you believe in God.
Most of the description of his youth, however, was spent in his discovery of religion. Pi was an adherent to three major religions: Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism. From Christianity he learned that God is so generous that he gave his life for us. From Islam he learns devotion to God. From Hinduism he learns that God is in everything. Although the three religions are seen as mutually exclusive by their adherents, Pi does not view them that way, synchretizing them in the apparent belief that none of them fully represent God.
Eventually Pi's family decides that the Mrs. Ghandi's New India is not for them and they sell the zoo animals to various places in the America's. They hire a cargo boat to transport themselves and the cargo across the Pacific, with the aim to settle in Canada. Unfortunately, the ship suddenly sinks after leaving Manila, and he is left destitute on a lifeboat with only himself, a Bengal tiger, a female orangutan (sadly, without the bananas she had been floating on), a zebra with a broken leg, and a hyena. The zebra is slowly eaten alive by the hyena over a period of several days. The orangutan was quickly killed, as her zoo upbringing had not taught her the subtleties of fighting. Shortly thereafter the tiger, named Richard Parker after the hunter who had captured him after killing his rampaging mother, dispatched the hyena, who gave up without a fight.
Pi was left Richard Parker as his sole companion, and Pi fled the lifeboat to a small raft he cobbled together from available materials. The lifeboat had a number of cans of water and food rations, some floating water stills for distilling seawater, some orange whistles, a few hooks and fishing line, and a book on survival in a lifeboat. Pi