Claire Nicholls

Life of Pi is 25 years old, I believe.

Do you remember the man you were when you wrote that book?

Yes.

What can you tell me about him?

Jan Martell with me, Claire Nicholls at the Sydney Writers Festival, and you're listening to The Book Show on Radio National.

What a joy to speak to Jan about his new book, Son of Nobody, and the book that made his name, his Booker winner, Life of Pi.

Winning a prize like that doesn't change the writer you are, but having a book that is that successful means that suddenly that story, Life of Pi, means so much to so many other people, and they then have an ownership over that story and a love for that story.

What is that like for this story that has been out there now in the world for 25 years, for you to have other people come to you to tell you about their relationship with that story?

So Richard Parker is the tiger in the lifeboat.

And obviously there's this wonderful menagerie of animals in Life of Pi.

We've got the hyena in the boat.

We've got the orangutan.

We've got the tiger.

There's also a very strange selection of animals in Son of Nobody, animals that perhaps shouldn't be in ancient Greece, like porcupines.

You clearly have a great love for animals.

They're a reoccurring theme through all of your work.

You and I met an hour ago and you showed me a whole bunch of photos of Australian animals you've seen during this tour.

They are adorable.

But what is it?

What is it about animals in fiction that invigorate you so much?