Shantaram

This novel narrates an extraordinary story based on real events that unfolded over eight years in the Bombay underworld, told in a gripping style filled with indomitable courage and driven by a deep moral purpose. Set in the 1980s, it follows Gregory David Roberts—a robber and heroin addict—who escapes from an Australian prison and arrives in India, settling in a Mumbai slum. There, he opens a free health clinic, but soon becomes entangled with the mafia, involving himself in money laundering, forgery, and the violent world of organised crime. During this journey, he learns Hindi and Marathi, falls in love, and even spends time in an Indian prison. Yet, despite everything, he never breaks. He acts in Bollywood films and later joins the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, fighting alongside them. Remarkably, Roberts wrote Shantaram three times—the first two manuscripts destroyed by prison guards—making the book a powerful testament to his sheer willpower. At once thrilling, courageous, and deeply romantic, the novel is a brutal yet tender and poetic tale of a fugitive’s life. — Time Out