Gregory David Roberts

"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 by Gregory David Roberts, 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.

A Novel

Shantaram

Eli Alvah Huckabee

When it was necessary, I gave men enough bad head, as gangsters call it, to make them draw back and lower their eyes in fear.

Jenna-Lee Gordon

I knew the determination in her that was almost brutal, and the courage that was almost cruel, and the lonely, angry longing to be loved. I knew all that, but I didn't say a word. I didn't tell her how much I liked her. I was numb, in those first years after the escape: shell-shocked by the disasters that warred in my life. My heart moved through deep and silent water. No-one, and nothing, could really hurt me. No-one, and nothing, could make me very happy. I was tough, which is probably the saddest thing you can say about a man.

The world and I are not on speaking terms, Karla said to me once in those early months. The world keeps trying to win me back, she said, but it doesn't work. I guess I'm just not the forgiving type.

"A publishing phenomenon" Sunday Times 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. Shantaram is a novel based on the life of the author, Gregory David Roberts. In 1978 Roberts was sentenced to nineteen years imprisonment as punishment for a series of robberies of building-society branches, credit unions, and shops he had committed while addicted to heroin. In July 1980 he escaped from Victoria's maximum-security prison in broad daylight, thereby becoming one of Australia's most wanted men for what turned out to be the next ten years. For most of this period he lived in Bombay. He set up a free health clinic in the slums, acted in Bollywood movies, worked for the Bombay mafia as a forger, counterfeiter, and smuggler and, as a gun-runner, resupplied a unit of mujaheddin guerrilla fighters in Afghanistan. This is the setting of Shantaram. Apart from having this highly unusual personal background, Greg Roberts is a very gifted writer. His book is a blend of vivid dialogue, unforgettable characters, amazing adventures, and superb evocations of Indian life. It can be read as a vast, extended thriller, as well as a superbly written meditation on the nature of good and evil. It is a compelling tale of a hunted man who had lost everything - his home, his family, and his soul - and came to find his humanity while living at the wildest edge of experience. Gregory David Roberts retired from public life in 2014 to devote time to his family and new writing projects. The Mountain Shadow, sequel to Shantaram, is available now. PRAISE FOR SHANTARAM "A literary masterpiece ... at once erudite and intimate, reflective and funny ... it has the grit and pace of a thriller" Daily Telegraph "Powerful and original ... a remarkable achievement" Sunday Telegraph "Extraordinarily vivid ... a gigantic, jaw-dropping, grittily authentic saga" Daily Mail "At once a high-kicking, eye-gouging adventure, a love saga and a savage yet tenderly lyrical fugitive vision." Time Out Fans of Vikram Seth, John Irving and David Mitchell will love Shantaram.

Edward Steel

Sanjay Krishna 

"The truth is that, no matter what kind of game you find yourself in, no matter how good or bad the luck, you can change your life completely with a single thought or a single act of love."

Allison Dempsey

This was about 200 pages too long for me, but I desperately wish I had read it before I went to India. A truly brilliant insight into what makes Mumbai tick, and an extremely interesting story at that. Was thrilled but ultimately not surprised to discover in the About the Author at the end that it was semi-autobiographical.

What I liked: great writing on prison, hatred, fighting, drug use, and wartime medicine. Roberts also made good on him being a fool and ignorant around people in India, good touch.

All in all this was an interesting story, but not one for our modern age. 21st century literature this is not, but a thought out story nonetheless. Karla stuff was nonsense and not needed, however.

What I liked: great writing on prison, hatred, fighting, drug use, and wartime medicine. Roberts also made good on him being a fool and ignorant around people in India, good touch.

All in all this was an interesting story, but not one for our modern age. 21st century literature this is not, but a thought out story nonetheless. Karla stuff was nonsense and not needed, however.

Satyajeet Pal

Excellent read that places the reader in the richness of Mumbai and India and really fleshes out the protagonists' experiences there. Effortlessly weaves in discussion of morality and good vs. evil. One of my favorite books.

rumbledethumps

Abandoned after 100 pages. This book had been recommended to me by several people, but I just couldn't get into it. After the 4th time the narrator says "I didn't know it then, but..." I realized that 100 pages of foreshadowing meant I was going to be living with this 900-page book for a long time. It was time to abandon it or dig in. I just didn't think it was good enough to slog on. Maybe another time.

Jonathan Tysick

A truly epic and satisfying read. Gave me more fuel for my desire to travel to India. Part thriller, part romance, part philosophy book, part travel memoir; overall this is a unique and interesting novel that celebrates themes of forgiveness and freedom. While a bit graphic (language and violence especially), I'm glad I read this and may even return to it in the future.

heleen de boever

Two stars? Three stars? Difficult book to rate. Despicable narrator, pretentious language, but an outrageous (in a good way) story. At 936 pages, it's a good effort.

Cristian Garcia

I took me a whole lot of time to finish this one. I read several books in between, but the story of Lin was always somewhere in my head. At the end, I was always coming back to Mumbai to experience his adventures and stories with the Indian underworld. 
Shantaram is great. It gave me hours of entertainment and insights on the underworld of Mumbai. Even though I have never been to that city, I lived in India and understood some of the codes expose in the story. Shantaram is a huge debut novel, taking you to experience every single emotion a person can have. It could be with Prabaker, talking and smiling before going for "sexy business", or in the small hospital in the slums, killing nigerian mobsters, falling in love with Karla or thinking you're about to be dead in Arthur Road Jail.
At the end though, I felt the story was losing its spell. Only the few last pages turned out to be exciting, but the last 3 chapters were "skippable" .
Overall, great book.

Eat, Pray, Love for everyday carry dudes. Too many words

Hans Gerwitz

Good characters, great use of place and culture, and a satisfying story arc.

It would be hard to edit this book, because every part seems to feed productively into the wrap-up. But it would be stronger with some careful cutting.

Katie Ravenwood

This book is epic. By turns beautiful and bleak, this book takes you on a journey that you will never, ever forget. Through the slums of Mumbai to the rich palaces of the Indian mafia to the terror and hardship of war, i feel like I've been on about ey after finishing. 

Now of course, it's not perfect-- there's a fair amount of philosophical pontification, a lot of stereotyping, and storylines that weave loose ends in and leave them hanging, but I found it very interesting if not always enjoyable. 

Very enthusiastically recommended, particularly the audio version, which is expertly read by Humphrey Bower. Truly an epic, marvelous work.

'A literary masterpiece . . . at once erudite and intimate, reflective and funny . . . it has the grit and pace of a thriller' Daily Telegraph A novel of high adventure, great storytelling and moral purpose, based on an extraordinary true story of eight years in the Bombay underworld. 'In the early 80s, Gregory David Roberts, an armed robber and heroin addict, escaped from an Australian prison to India, where he lived in a Bombay slum. There, he established a free health clinic and also joined the mafia, working as a money launderer, forger and street soldier. He found time to learn Hindi and Marathi, fall in love, and spend time being worked over in an Indian jail. Then, in case anyone thought he was slacking, he acted in Bollywood and fought with the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan . . . Amazingly, Roberts wrote Shantaram three times after prison guards trashed the first two versions. It's a profound tribute to his willpower . . . At once a high-kicking, eye-gouging adventure, a love saga and a savage yet tenderly lyrical fugitive vision.' Time Out

Melody Izard

This is a sort of Eat, Pray, Love written by an Australian thug. It’s a novel, not a memoir, although the lines of truth and the lines of creation seem to dip and sway and merge into each other creating things that were and could have been with things that might have been better left unsaid. While this novel is not as poetic or even as compelling as A Fine Balance and White Tiger I certainly am glad I did not let the length of this book keep me from reading it. The descriptions of savage dog packs, stampeding rats and open sewers did not make me feel I could fall in love with Bombay as easy as our heroin addicted author, but I did like learning about the Indian head wiggle, the standing Babas 

 and the lives of the slum and pavement dwellers. 
I also wasn’t bathed in understanding how Lin could admire and love the petty and entrenched criminals he consorted with. However I do admire the author for writing such an epic half-truth filled novel while serving time in an Australian prison and, if the descriptions in the novel are correct, being beaten, stabbed, and tortured. 
I also look at holding this big book overhead as I attempted to read in bed as perfect training for reading Infinite Jest in January.

Diana 

Sì, ok....complimenti, capo, per le tue peripezie. Ma quanto era eterno questo libro? Possibile che tutte a te capitassero, capo? Situazioni impensabili con picchi di delirio degne solo di Orange is the New Black (TV).
L'unico personaggio simpatico è morto! Meh.

Howard Lo

300 pages too long. Ultimately I felt no attachment to any of the characters and the author's voice creeps in too much with his heavyhandedness in trying to convey his opinions.

Christina

Interesting, but also unnecessarily long. (It didn't help that I took my time with the book, because it got a little frustrating when I'd read so much, but there was still so much left to read.)

But anyway, here's a brief overview on the things I liked + disliked in the book:

Yay: Bombay nostalgia (this hit even harder in lockdown); author's writing/way of expressing himself in some places; some philosophical/thought-provoking lessons.

Nay: book length (so.many.words!); multiple plotlines, some of which felt quite unnecessary/like a force fit.

Overall, a decent read. But not one I would recommend so much, for sure.

PS: I do believe the book would have been at least 500 pages shorter if only Roberts had social media (specifically, Twitter) 🤭

Shantaram A Novel

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