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Shantaram
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Shantaram Paperback - 2005

by Gregory David Roberts

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This seller has earned a 4.28 of 5 Stars rating from internet customers.
4.28 / 5 (246065 total reviews)

Based directly upon the experiences of its author, this is the story of a man who escapes from prison in Australia to arrive in Bombay where he works in a first-aid station and smuggles drugs and guns.

Reader reviews for Shantaram

Review summary

This seller has earned a 4.28 of 5 Stars rating from internet customers.
4.28 / 5 (246065 total reviews)

Opinion split sharply on this sprawling, semi-autobiographical epic. Many praised its vivid, on-the-ground portrait of Mumbai and propulsive, incident-packed storytelling, along with its aphoristic musings. Others condemned the purple prose, self-mythologizing narrator, shallow or stereotyped characters, and exhausting length.

Readers say this book is:
polarizingimmersiveevocativeentertainingverboseoverwroughtquotableself-aggrandizingcliché-riddenpage-turner

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From the publisher

Now a major television series from Apple TV+ starring Charlie Hunnam!

"It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured."

An escaped convict with a false passport, Lin flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of Bombay, where he can disappear. Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter the city's hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere.

As a hunted man without a home, family, or identity, Lin searches for love and meaning while running a clinic in one of the city's poorest slums, and serving his apprenticeship in the dark arts of the Bombay mafia. The search leads him to war, prison torture, murder, and a series of enigmatic and bloody betrayals. The keys to unlock the mysteries and intrigues that bind Lin are held by two people. The first is Khader Khan: mafia godfather, criminal-philosopher-saint, and mentor to Lin in the underworld of the Golden City. The second is Karla: elusive, dangerous, and beautiful, whose passions are driven by secrets that torment her and yet give her a terrible power.

Burning slums and five-star hotels, romantic love and prison agonies, criminal wars and Bollywood films, spiritual gurus and mujaheddin guerrillas--this huge novel has the world of human experience in its reach, and a passionate love for India at its heart.

First line

IT TOOK ME a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured.

Details

  • Title Shantaram
  • Author Gregory David Roberts
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Reprint
  • Pages 944
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher St. Martin's Griffin, New York
  • Publication date 2005-10-01
  • ISBN 9780312330538 / 0312330537
  • Weight 1.55 lbs (0.70 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.1 x 5.3 x 1.7 in (20.57 x 13.46 x 4.32 cm)
  • Themes
    • Cultural Region: Australian
    • Cultural Region: Indian
  • Category Fiction - General
  • Library of Congress subjects Adventure fiction, Fugitives from justice
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

Media reviews

Citations

  • Ingram Advance, 11/01/2005, Page 67

About the author

Gregory David Roberts, the author of Shantaram and its sequel, The Mountain Shadow, was born in Melbourne, Australia. Sentenced to nineteen years in prison for a series of armed robberies, he escaped and spent ten of his fugitive years in Bombay--where he established a free medical clinic for slum-dwellers, and worked as a counterfeiter, smuggler, gunrunner, and street soldier for a branch of the Bombay mafia. Recaptured, he served out his sentence, and established a successful multimedia company upon his release. Roberts is now a full-time writer and lives in Bombay.

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