A fantastical tale that somehow stays grounded, and a thrillingly vivid audiobook
Young Piscine "Pi" Patel had a complex life from the beginning: with a name that can be interpreted to sound like the act of urination, a job helping his father run an Indian zoo and a theological curiosity that leads him to believe in Christianity, Hinduism and Islam all at the same time, you'd think he has enough on his plate already. And he does until Pi, the only human survivor of a shipwreck, finds himself stranded at sea with some of his father's zoo inhabitants. You think surviving on a lifeboat is hard? Try doing it for over 200 days with a tiger, zebra, hyena and orangutan as shipmates.

Life of Pi may only be of interest to people who'd find a fight between a shark and a tiger somewhat intriguing — but that's just about everyone, right? Yes, it's a fanciful book but Martel's conversational narrator and seemingly useful tips on exotic topics as zookeeping and shipwreck survival keeps the too-amazing-to-be-real story grounded. The fanciful nature of the story, adventurous animal-human interaction and the youth of its protagonist also makes Pi a good audiobook for mature young listeners whose parents can trust them with some compelling literary violence.