Can't think of something I read in recent times which uplifted me as much as "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel.

Simply Unputdownable from beginning to end... magical realism!

All about a 15 year old boy with a very imaginative name - Piscine Molitor Patel who is stranded on a lifeboat after his ship sinks on the Pacific.

Along with him in the lifeboat, there is a zebra with a fractured leg, a female orangutan, a Hyena and well, sharks swim by the lifeboat nudging the boat.

He spends a whole night wondering how he is going to die - whether the orangutan will assault him or the hyena will bite off his leg or the sharks will devour him or by some mercy of God, he would merely drown, which seems to be the best way according to him, all of a sudden.

After one day on the life boat, he discovers to his utter shock and fear, what he missed noticing all along on the life boat - a 450 pound three year old Royal Bengal Tiger!!!!

And then I just had to hop onto the bandwagon struggling to stay afloat on the Pacific!