Life of Pi (International Edition, Movie Tie-In) 少年派的奇幻漂流

Winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.

Pi Patel is an unusual boy. The son of a zookeeper, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior, a fervent love of stories, and practices not only his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes.

The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The Japanese authorities who interrogate Pi refuse to believe his story and press him to tell them "the truth." After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second story, a story much less fantastical, much more conventional-but is it more true?

Life of Pi is at once a realistic, rousing adventure and a meta-tale of survival that explores the redemptive power of storytelling and the transformative nature of fiction. It's a story, as one character puts it, to make you believe in God.

　　《少年派的奇幻漂流》是作者马特尔的第二部小说，但是一面市便惊艳国际文坛，获奖无数，成为畅销书。《少年派的奇幻漂流》是一关于成长、冒险、希望、奇迹、生存和信心的奇特的小说，在美国、加拿大、德国、英国等欧美国家进入了高中生必读书目。这本书描述了16岁的印度少年和一只孟加拉虎共同在太平洋漂流227天后获得重生的神奇经历。如真似幻的海上历险与天真、残酷并存的人性矛盾，在书中不但巧妙契合，更激荡出高潮不断的阅读惊喜。

　　小说内容关于冒险、希望、奇迹、生存和信心，是一个能让人产生信仰的故事，同时也会让读者重新认识文学并相信文学的力量。书中如真似幻的海上历险与天真、残酷并存的人性矛盾，巧妙契合，更激荡出高潮不断的阅读惊喜。读者读过此书后必将引发深深的思考，无论是开放式的结局还是小说对于信仰、生存，乃至人与动物、人与人、人与世界的关系的展现，都会成为每一个读者深思的问题。难得的是，这样一本蕴含悠远、包罗万象的书确是非常好读，叙述行云流水，文字不艰涩不花哨，语言朴实且有力量，好读且让人欲罢不能。

Yann Martel was born in Spain in 1963 of Canadian parents. After studying philosophy at university, he worked at odd jobs—tree-planter, dishwasher, security guard—and traveled widely before turning to writing at the age of twenty-six. He is the author of a collection of short stories; three novels, including the internationally acclaimed 2002 Man Booker Prize–winning novel Life of Pi, which spent fifty-seven weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and Beatrice and Virgil; and a collection of letters to the Prime Minister of Canada, What is Stephen Harper Reading? Yann Martel lives in Saskatchewan, Canada.

　　扬·马特尔（Yann Martel），一九六三年出生于西班牙，父母是加拿大人。幼时曾旅居哥斯达黎加、法国、墨西哥、加拿大，成年后作客伊朗、土耳其及印度。毕业于加拿大特伦特大学哲学系，其后从事过各种稀奇古怪的行业，包括植树工、洗碗工、保安等。