Writing the Life of Pi

Yann Martel put in about a two years researching zoology and religion for his novel, Life of Pi. His inspiration for the book came to him while he was in--prepare to be amazed--India. While in India, after the inspiration for Life of Pi permeated throughout him, he spent six months visiting zoos, mosques, churches and temples. He carefully took in his surroundings, all the while taking extensive notes which would later become his best-selling novel.

After those initial six months, Yann Martel returned to his home in Canada (which is where Pi and his family were headed when their ship sank). While in Canada he read texts about Christianity, Hinduism and Islam, as well as books on zoology and animal psychology. He also did more 'research' reading many castaway and other disastrous stories.

Martel also went through a bit of trial and error before he decided to make the animal stuck on the lifeboat with Pi a tiger. Before that, he'd considered an elephant and then a rhinoceros before the seemingly obvious choice of a tiger came to him.

There was also some plagiarism controversy that arose when some people took note of the similarities between Life of Pi and Moacyr Scliar's book, Max and the Cats. Scliar's novel was about a Jewish family living in Berlin, their business isn't fairing well, so they decide to move to Brazil. The ship sinks, and one of the survivors finds himself on a lifeboat with a black panther. While Martel admits that the inspiration for the premise of his story was no doubt sparked by Scilar's book, he maintains that he only ever read a critic's review about the book and though he attempted to get his hands on it never found the book itself to be able to read it. He also states it was about four or five years before the inspiration for Life of Pi hit him. The plagiarism controversy died after Scliar decided not to press charges.

sources: http://www.powells.com/fromtheauthor/martel.html