Nashville Reads Kickoff with Yann Martel

Author Talk, Book Signing & Sale

• This event is free and open to the public.
• Doors open at 2:30PM.
• Author talk at 3 PM.
• Book signing to follow. Books will be available for purchase at the event via Parnassus Books.

Ticket Information

This is a free ticketed event. Advance tickets are available for a $2.50 service fee per ticket.

Advance tickets guarantee your seat up to 10 minutes prior to show time, at which time empty auditorium seats will be filled with stand-by guests.

A limited number of auditorium tickets will be available 30 minutes before show time on the day of the event. Once auditorium seats have been filled, guests will be accommodated in alternative viewing locations.

About Life of Pi

The son of a zookeeper, Pi Patel has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior and a fervent love of stories. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes.

The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days while lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. 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?

About Author

Yann Martel, the child of diplomats, grew up in Costa Rica, France, Mexico, Alaska, and Canada and as an adult has spent time in Iran, Turkey, and India. After studying philosophy at Trent University, he worked at odd jobs until he began making a living as a writer at the age of twenty-seven. He lives in Montreal.

Life of Pi won the 2002 Man Booker Prize and has been translated into more than forty languages.

About Nashville Reads

Nashville Reads is a way of bringing the entire city together to read great literature, in an attempt to broaden the literary horizons of the city and open up a forum for discussion. Sponsors include Nashville Public Library, Parnassus Books, the Nashville Public Library Foundation, and Humanities Tennessee, the Mayor's Office - Mayor Karl Dean, Friends of the Nashville Public Library, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.