Pi asks the officials which story they prefer, and they say the one with animals. They note that the hyena is the cook, the zebra is the sailor, Orange Juice is Pi’s mother, and Richard Parker is Pi himself. The officials are horrified, but they believe this story. The cook later kills Pi’s mother, and then Pi kills the cook. The sailor dies and the cook eats his flesh. He then tells them a second story, replacing the animals with humans – in this version Pi is on the lifeboat with a French cook, a Chinese sailor, and his own mother. Pi tells them his story, but they don’t believe him. The last section is a transcript of an interview between Pi and two Japanese officials who are trying to figure out why the Tsimtsum sank. Richard Parker disappears into the jungle without looking back, and Pi is rescued by some villagers. Finally the lifeboat washes up on a beach in Mexico. One day Pi finds a tree with human teeth as its fruit, and he realizes that the island is carnivorous. Pi and Richard Parker stay there for a while and recover their health. Later the boat comes to a mysterious island made entirely of algae and inhabited by thousands of meerkats. The castaway attacks Pi, intending to kill and eat him. The two discuss food and then bring their boats together. At first he thinks it is Richard Parker, but then he realizes it is another castaway who is also blind. Pi goes temporarily blind and hears a voice talking to him. He remembers episodes like seeing a whale, experiencing a lightning storm, and watching a ship pass by. Pi and Richard Parker each occupy their own territory in the lifeboat and live peacefully, though they are constantly starving. Pi kills and eats fish and turtles, filters seawater, and collects rainwater. Pi makes a raft for himself and finds supplies in the lifeboat, and he sets about marking his territory and “taming” Richard Parker using a whistle. Richard Parker kills the hyena, leaving Pi alone with the tiger. Pi notices that Richard Parker is still in the boat, hiding under a tarpaulin. The hyena then fights and kills Orange Juice. Pi eventually finds himself on the lifeboat with a zebra, a hyena, and Orange Juice the orangutan. Pi sees a tiger, Richard Parker, and encourages him to climb aboard. The ship sinks, leaving no human survivors except for Pi. Pi is awake at the time, and some sailors throw him into a lifeboat. There is an explosion one night and the Tsimtsum starts sinking. They board a Japanese cargo ship called the Tsimtsum, traveling with many of the zoo animals.
The “Emergency” brings political turmoil to India and Pi’s parents decide to sell the zoo and move the family to Canada. He practices all three religions at once, despite the protests of his parents and the religious leaders. As a youth Pi becomes devoutly Hindu and then converts to Christianity and Islam.
Pi is raised culturally Hindu, but his family is generally unreligious. His father warns him of the danger of wild animals by making Pi watch a tiger eat a goat, but Pi also learns that “the most dangerous animal at a zoo is Man.”
Pi’s tale frequently digresses to explain about zookeeping, animal territories, and boundaries. Pi’s father is a zookeeper, and Pi and his brother Ravi are raised among exotic wild animals. He is named after a famous swimming pool in Paris. Pi grows up in Pondicherry, India in the 1970s. The author writes the rest of the narrative from Pi’s point of view, occasionally interrupting to describe his interviews with the adult Pi. The author tracks down and interviews the story’s subject, Piscine Molitor Patel, usually called Pi, in Canada. A fictional author travels to India, and there he hears an extraordinary story from a man named Francis Adirubasamy.
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