Torjanac used his distinctive blend of oil paints and digital illustration to produce 40 stunning illustrations with a conceptual twist - the scenes he portrayed were viewed from Pi’s subjective perspective. It’s a story of faith, adventure, survival and belonging.īut what makes the book most noteworthy is that, in 2005, a worldwide competition set out to find an artist to illustrate a new, special edition of the book, settling on the wonderful Croatian illustrator and painter Tomislav Torjanac. It tells the story of an Indian boy, Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel, stranded for 227 days after a shipwreck on a boat he shares with a Bengali tiger named Pi. That’s exactly what happened to Yann Martel, whose fantasy adventure novel Life of Pi was rejected by at least five UK publishers before being published by a Canadian one in 2001 and awarded the Man Booker Prize for Fiction the following year for its UK edition.

When they finally reach the.It’s a familiar story - author faces series of rejection letters but perseveres to eventually reach wide critical acclaim. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi Patel, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with the tiger, Richard Parker, for 227 days while lost at sea. IsPublicPerformanceAllowed False languages It's a story, as one character puts it, to make you believe in God. Life of Pi is at once a realistic, rousing adventure and a meta-tale of survival that explores the redemptive power of storytelling and the transformative nature of fiction. The Japanese authorities who interrogate Pi refuse to believe his story and press him to tell them 'the truth.' After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second story, a story much less fantastical, much more conventional-but is it more true? When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a wounded zebra, an orangutan-and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. The modern classic and international bestseller is now brought to splendid, eye-popping life with forty beautiful illustrations from artist Tomislav Torjanac.Īfter the sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild blue Pacific. The interpretation of what Pi sees is intermeshed with what he feels and it is shown through use of colors, perspective, symbols, hand gestures, etc.' - Tomislav Torjanac 'My vision of the illustrated edition of Life of Pi is based on paintings from a first person's perspective-Pi's perspective.

Life of pi illustrated