Life of Pi is one of my favorite novels. It is disarmingly simple, unusually playful, and at the end makes you question whether you understood a thing you read. It's not that the book is confusing, it's that something happens at the end that causes you to question the reliability of the narrator, who you badly want to believe. And it's the search for that answer that puts the gleam in the eye of the tiger.

Pi Patel is a very religious boy. He is a Hindu, a Christian, and a Muslim. Not serially: simultaneously. When his pandit, priest, and imam meet in the street and start to argue over his true belief, he stops them, saying, "All religions are true. I just want to love God."

How can all religions possibly be true? Perhaps if you don't take them literally, but instead treat them as stories that illuminate the beauty of God's creation. And, of course, the lessons of these stories help you navigate the complexities of the real world.

As Pi weaves his story, think about these possiblities: is his story true? Or does he simply believe it to be true? Is the alternate story true? Or does Pi make it up because his inquistors don't believe the true story? Or perhaps neither story is true and Pi was just hallucinating while lost at sea. Or maybe both are true -- which is the better story?

Is there anything in the main story that makes you question your belief in the story? Or can a story contain miracles and still be true?