Yann Martel Book summary

Yann Martel was born to Canadian parents on June 25, 1963, in Salamanca, Spain. His parents soon joined the Canadian Foreign Services which led to them living all over the world for different lengths of time. Yann's early exposure to travel and its effect is also explored in Life of Pi as the protagonist begins his life in southern India, travels over the pacific ocean to reach Mexico, and then settles down in Canada.

Life of Pi was dogged by a small controversy as its premise was found to be quite similar to Moacyr Scliar’s 1981 novel Max and the Cats. Scilar's novel features a similar story of a castaway who is trapped on a lifeboat with a wild Jaguar. Martel always maintained that he had never read the book in question but he decided to include the author at the beginning of the book. In the Author's note, Martel thanked Scliar for “the spark of life.”