...doesn't really have much to do with the debates going on here, but it does touch on world religions in a unique way and it's a great story.
Pi is a young boy growing up in Pondicherry, India. His family runs a zoo. When Pi is 16, his father decides to move the family, along with a number of their zoo animals, to Canada. The family and the animals board a freighter and head straight into a hurricane at sea. The ship capsizes and, due to a series of circumstances, Pi finds himself the sole human survivor sharing a lifeboat with an orangutan, a zebra, a hyena and a 400 lb. bengal tiger. It isn't long before the tiger has devoured the other animals. The book tells the story of Pi's survival at sea on the lifeboat with the tiger for seven months.
This is an excellent read I highly recommend to anyone who enjoys a good novel.