I love it when fantasy is so close to the truth that it is hard to tell the difference. Pi and his family have left India for Canada when their ship sinks and Pi finds himself on a lifeboat alone with a 450-lb. Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker. And a lame zebra, a hyena, and an orangutan named Orange Juice.
But the sinking of the ship is rather oddly mystical; there is no screaming, no running around, no people except for a couple of Chinese crewman who have tossed Pi overboard onto the lifeboat. Pi, watching the ship disappear beneath the sea, sees no other lifeboats around, yet he is certain that all the others–including his family–are safe and will be amused by his tale of riding an oar he's stuck under the tarp of the boat (he jumped out once he saw the tiger) for several days. He does not complain of hunger or thirst, but tells the reader (or the author, Martel) about the behavior of the animals both onboard and within their natural habitats. He believes that the tiger has abandoned ship, and his main worry is the hyena.
It could be real, but is it? Pi is about sixteen when this adventure takes place; a man when he relates the story. What is exaggeration and what is fact?
But then, this is fiction; does it matter?
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology