Fabulous

IN AWARDING Yann Martel, a Canadian, this year's £50,000 prize for “Life of Pi”, the Man Booker judges chose one of the strangest but most approachable novels in years. Pi (for Piscine), a 16-year-old boy, emigrates to Canada with animals from a zoo his father ran in India. The ship sinks in the Pacific and Pi finds himself in a lifeboat with only a Bengal tiger for company. The journey tests Pi's faith in himself, not to mention his faith in God. “Life of Pi”, which mixes yarn, fable and morality tale with musings about religious conflict and man's closeness to animals, struck a topical chord with the four judges (out of five) who gave it their votes. Renamed in its 34th year, the fiction prize's new sponsor is Man, a finance group. “Life of Pi”, published originally by Knopf of Canada, is available from Harcourt Brace in the United States and Canongate in Britain.