Pi Goes PI

A nod from Oscar this coming Sunday might just push things into the stratosphere, but sales of Yann Martel’s “irrational” tale of a boy and his tiger are already not too shabby. From The Guardian:

Martel's narrator, who chooses his mathematical nickname to avoid being known as "Pissing", would undoubtedly be delighted at the news that the novel he narrates, Life of Pi, has just sold its 3,141,593rd copy for its British publisher Canongate – an extraordinary feat for a novel published only 10 years ago. Of course, given that pi is an irrational number, Life of Pi has not, in fact, sold exactly pi copies. "That's one thing I hate about my nickname, the way that number runs on forever," says Pi – though Canongate probably wouldn't be averse to the ideas of sales rolling on forever without end.

The full piece is here. January Magazine’s 2002 review of the book is here.