Life of Pi: Deluxe Illustrated Edition
by: Yann Martel
List Price: $23.00
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Price: $21.56
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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
Product Description:
Life of Pi, first published in 2002, became an international bestseller and remains one of the most extraordinary and popular works of contemporary fiction.
In 2005 an international competition was held to find the perfect artist to illustrate Yann Martel s Man Booker Prize winning novel. From thousands of entrants, Croatian artist Tomislav Torjanac was chosen. This lavishly produced edition features forty of Torjanac s beautiful four-color illustrations, bringing Life of Pi to splendid, eye-popping life.
Tomislav Torjanac says of his illustrations: My vision of the illustrated edition of Life of Pi is based on paintings from a first person s perspective Pi s perspective. The interpretation of what Pi sees is intermeshed with what he feels and it is shown through [the] use of colors, perspective, symbols, hand gestures, etc.
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." |
Product Description:
Life of Pi, first published in 2002, became an international bestseller and remains one of the most extraordinary and popular works of contemporary fiction.
In 2005 an international competition was held to find the perfect artist to illustrate Yann Martel s Man Booker Prize winning novel. From thousands of entrants, Croatian artist Tomislav Torjanac was chosen. This lavishly produced edition features forty of Torjanac s beautiful four-color illustrations, bringing Life of Pi to splendid, eye-popping life.
Tomislav Torjanac says of his illustrations: My vision of the illustrated edition of Life of Pi is based on paintings from a first person s perspective Pi s perspective. The interpretation of what Pi sees is intermeshed with what he feels and it is shown through [the] use of colors, perspective, symbols, hand gestures, etc.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- Seek the "A-ha!" It's in there
Many have commented on the "plausibility" of Martel's fiction, especially as this novel is so cleverly and eloquently presented to us as a story discovered by the author himself during a time of personal soul-searching. In addition, I read in reviews that much work may be required of the reader to find the connections of Martel's thematic underpinning of development of personal faith as it melds as color in the dramatic thread of the survival yarn. I see that, too, but it's a good kind of work seeking ... Read More
Rating: 
- Life of Pi
Item arrived on time but back cover damaged on arrival. There was no note about damages when I bought the book so it was just unexpected. May have even been done in shipping.
Rating: - Survival of the Fittest
I am writing this review before finishing the book as I
will never be as captured by the story as now.The brilliant painting of pictures in the mind of Pi are reflected in the stunning illustrations.Deep struggling
descriptions by Pi captured my intellect and emotions.
I am reached on all levels by the impossible interaction
of Pi with Richard Parker and the elements of sea and sky.
Spiritual, mental and physical connections are amazingly
well portrayed in ... Read More
Rating: - Helpful
I'm a teacher and the illustrations help to explain much of the book, like the boat's dimensions. Although author Martel describes everything, the pictures give a better idea of how little space there is on the boat with Pi and Richard Parker. Plus, the first person POV is a great idea. Recommended.
Rating: - excellent quality!!!!great gift!
I was extremely happy with this product.It was a gift for a teenage child---awesome quality and contents.Received a lot faster than I expected.
- Seek the "A-ha!" It's in thereMany have commented on the "plausibility" of Martel's fiction, especially as this novel is so cleverly and eloquently presented to us as a story discovered by the author himself during a time of personal soul-searching. In addition, I read in reviews that much work may be required of the reader to find the connections of Martel's thematic underpinning of development of personal faith as it melds as color in the dramatic thread of the survival yarn. I see that, too, but it's a good kind of work seeking ... Read More
- Life of PiItem arrived on time but back cover damaged on arrival. There was no note about damages when I bought the book so it was just unexpected. May have even been done in shipping.
- Survival of the FittestI am writing this review before finishing the book as I
will never be as captured by the story as now.The brilliant painting of pictures in the mind of Pi are reflected in the stunning illustrations.Deep struggling
descriptions by Pi captured my intellect and emotions.
I am reached on all levels by the impossible interaction
of Pi with Richard Parker and the elements of sea and sky.
Spiritual, mental and physical connections are amazingly
well portrayed in ... Read More
- HelpfulI'm a teacher and the illustrations help to explain much of the book, like the boat's dimensions. Although author Martel describes everything, the pictures give a better idea of how little space there is on the boat with Pi and Richard Parker. Plus, the first person POV is a great idea. Recommended.
- excellent quality!!!!great gift!I was extremely happy with this product.It was a gift for a teenage child---awesome quality and contents.Received a lot faster than I expected.
