Shantaram: A Novel | 
| Author: Gregory David Roberts
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  275 reviews
Sales Rank: 14898
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 944
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.9
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 2.6
ISBN: 0312330529
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.92
EAN: 9780312330521
ASIN: 0312330529
Publication Date: October 13, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
Crime and punishment, passion and loyalty, betrayal and redemption are only a few of the ingredients in Shantaram, a massive, over-the-top, mostly autobiographical novel. Shantaram is the name given Mr. Lindsay, or Linbaba, the larger-than-life hero. It means "man of God's peace," which is what the Indian people know of Lin. What they do not know is that prior to his arrival in Bombay he escaped from an Australian prison where he had begun serving a 19-year sentence. He served two years and leaped over the wall. He was imprisoned for a string of armed robberies peformed to support his heroin addiction, which started when his marriage fell apart and he lost custody of his daughter. All of that is enough for several lifetimes, but for Greg Roberts, that's only the beginning. He arrives in Bombay with little money, an assumed name, false papers, an untellable past, and no plans for the future. Fortunately, he meets Prabaker right away, a sweet, smiling man who is a street guide. He takes to Lin immediately, eventually introducing him to his home village, where they end up living for six months. When they return to Bombay, they take up residence in a sprawling illegal slum of 25,000 people and Linbaba becomes the resident "doctor." With a prison knowledge of first aid and whatever medicines he can cadge from doing trades with the local Mafia, he sets up a practice and is regarded as heaven-sent by these poor people who have nothing but illness, rat bites, dysentery, and anemia. He also meets Karla, an enigmatic Swiss-American woman, with whom he falls in love. Theirs is a complicated relationship, and Karlas connections are murky from the outset. Roberts is not reluctant to wax poetic; in fact, some of his prose is downright embarrassing. Throughought the novel, however, all 944 pages of it, every single sentence rings true. He is a tough guy with a tender heart, one capable of what is judged criminal behavior, but a basically decent, intelligent man who would never intentionally hurt anyone, especially anyone he knew. He is a magnet for trouble, a soldier of fortune, a picaresque hero: the rascal who lives by his wits in a corrupt society. His story is irresistible. Stay tuned for the prequel and the sequel. --Valerie Ryan
Product Description
"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."
So begins this epic, mesmerizing first novel set in the underworld of contemporary Bombay. Shantaram is narrated by Lin, an escaped convict with a false passport who flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of a city where he can disappear.
Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter Bombay'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. Based on the life of the author, it is by any measure the debut of an extraordinary voice in literature.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 270 more reviews...
 Extraordinary novel November 16, 2008
Roberts writes like a god; the story is autobiographical, philosophical. Beginning with an escape from prison, the saga takes one into modern day India and from thence to Afghanistan. Our hero describes the different lives he led with the delicacy of a surgeon and the spiritual evolvement of a highly-evolved soul. Falling in love at first sight, the hero is led into a byzantine mist of cultural contradictions, crime and war. The issue of moral proximity is examined from every angle. Roberts is candid about how he fell from grace and how, in the end he found release from the demons that possessed him. I could not put it down and the story haunts me still.
The best book I've ever read October 31, 2008
I started reading Shantaram without knowing exactly what to expect. Once I started, I literally could not put the book down. You really live through his stories. It is an unbelievable book that is without question the best book I've ever read. It is a great book for a long plane ride, as it is hard to put down.
See, smell, taste, explore Bombay October 30, 2008
I loved the detailed feel of this book - it felt really authentic. I loved the character of Prabakar - he really made the book for me. I could hear his voice and see his head waggle as he talked.
Really an amazing story. I kept flipping to the back cover to read that this was based on his true experiences. It's really unbelievable at times!
Enjoyable read.
Holy Cow! October 27, 2008
This book is beyond belief great! You will feel that you got physically drop-kicked into Mumbai and at the same time feel very relieved that you actually weren't.
 Good 'whiteman among the natives' story. October 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts is quite a good book. It's sort of a new-age rendition of Papillon set in Mumbai/Bombay instead of South America. There are also a good deal of similarities with the style of stories that are about white men coming to benighted non-white societies and changing them for the better.
The story is based on the true life experiences of Roberts. Nobody knows exactly how much is truth and how much is fiction.
Although Roberts has great respect for India and Indians, he cannot escape the traditional "White man saves poor natives from themselves" theme that all stories about white men living among non-white cultures share.
White Australian Lin, the Roberts stand-in, is capable at everything from martial arts to medicine to withstanding torture and comes across as almost a superhero. Most Indians and other Asians in Shantaram come across as lovable goofy 'babu' like Prabaker, or mysterious 'wise man' stereotypes like Khader Khan. All Asians are constantly smoking hashish in practically every scene. To be fair, so is the white hero. Roberts has Lin fall in love with a white European woman instead of an Indian one, like Tarzan & Jane or Dances With Wolves and Stands With A Fist.
The descriptions of Mumbai/Bombay are vivid and fascinating. One can see the streets of this ancient, teeming city as one reads. I'd never really had an urge to visit India until I read this book, and now I would love to go.
While Shantaram would like to think of itself as having a new level of consciousness for non-white cultures, it's still Tarzan or A Man Called Horse at heart. Great read, though!
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