If you read nothing else this week...

Looking for a thought provoking but comfortable and easy read? Look no further. A book which should not be rejected for having pi in the title. Don't worry, there's nary a mention of the ratio of a circle to its diameter between its covers.

Life of Pi follows the unusual adventures of the hero Piscine Patel (named by his parents after a parisian swimming-pool), through his childhood and his later unsuccessful migration to Canada. Not just a narration of the story, the book takes a deeper look into philosophical issues, addressing religion in its several forms.

Pi himself has dabbled in a selection of faiths, illustrative of his inquisitive and progressive nature that creates a character so likeable that the reader's stake in the story becomes more than that of a mere observer, Martel manages to completely immerse us until the character feels like a friend, in a way that causes us to dangerously invest ourselves in the story.

This may sound thoroughly pretentious and uninteresting, but the addition of a Bengal tiger (aka Richard Parker), an orang-utan and a long lived shipwreck spices things up halfway through. The second half becomes an epic journey through the Atlantic and the realms of insanity before reaching its both frustrating and deeply disturbing conclusion, that (rarely for a book, I find) leaves the reader satisfied.

The book won the Man Booker prize despite being rejected by almost half a dozen publishers before firmly lodging itself into print. This could be due to the simplicity of the novel and possibly the slightly ambling start - but those who put it down at this early stage are as foolish as those who think that bananas can't float.