The winner of this year's prestigious Booker Prize is at the centre of a row over plagiarism of fictional ideas.
Canadian writer Yann Martel has admitted that the idea for his Booker winning 'Life of Pi' came from a story by Brazilian author Moacyr Scilar.
Martel said Scilar's 'Max and the Cats' was the inspiration for his novel about a shipwrecked Indian teenager who ends up in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger.
Scilar's story is about a teenage Jewish boy adrift in a boat with a panther after a shipwreck.
Yesterday, Martel said he had not read the book but took the premise from a review he read of Scilar's story. "I don't feel I've done something dishonest," he said.
Scliar said he was not informed or consulted about Martel's plans to use the idea, which he considers his intellectual property. His publishers are considering legal action.
