Life of Pi - Yann Martel

I'd seen other people reading the book, and picked it up many a time, but the blurb on the back put me off, so I'm glad Hazel bought this at Gatwick. We both read it whilst on holiday in Kerala, a mere state away from where the story starts in Pondicherry.

It's a crazy-sounding, but increasingly plausible tale of an Indian boy, Pi, who is shipwrecked en route to Canada, and manages to save himself plus a baboon, a hyena, a zebra and a royal bengal tiger, all also en route to new lives as a result of Pi's father owning and running a zoo.

This is where the blurb misleads.... I had expected a cosy surreal chat between the species to while away the days until they were miraculously saved, but it is not so. Pi's story deals with the survival of the fittest, leaving no room for queasiness or cowardice as he figures out how to survive with a hungry tiger, a life-raft and emergency kit and supplies for company.

And survive he does (as you find out before the cast-adrift story starts, so no spoiler there!), but by dint of determination, ingenuity and good luck.

Buy it: Amazon link