Shantaram: A Novel

The book is named Shantaram and I have burned through its 936 pages in about two weeks. If you don't know the book. it is based on the author's Gregory David Roberts own true story of his escaped from a Maximum Security Prison in Australia, and subsequent travel to India to find refuge among slums dwellers and the Mafia of Bombay. In Mumbai (Bombay), as a fugitive, with a new identity "Lin" (Roberts), as protagonist lives out an extensional quest for survival, freedom, and redemption so profound, that to set such experiences into an active first person narrative, and place it within the context of the authors own intense confessions as well as an esoteric yet rigorous philosophical cosmology constitutes one of the rarest forms of literary expression. Yet Robert's managed the feat while running a medical clinic in one of the cities darkest slums and inhabiting the Bombay underworld, associating with the most amazing cast of anti-heroes and hoods. The sacred and profane populate this novel; gangsters, gurus, thieves, standing Babas, Sufis, sinners, saints, European ex-pats are all among the odd assortment of humanity who find a home within. The plot follows Lin through a series of most fantastic adventures and incredible experiences only possible in India, or ecstatic realizations among unspeakable deprivations. This is a book about crime and its more unspeakable punishment, of despair and hope, love and betrayal. His friendships with India and its villagers, slum dwellers, sages, and his trusty companion Prabu are deeply poignant, joyful and heart wrenching. The author's deep affection for the people of the subcontinent breaths through his every word. The story is also at times even absurdly comic ( ex. A Bombay drug store cowboy decked out in black leather and a stetson, who speaks Danish, a Mumbai police hunt for a giant bear). The author even takes on roles in the Bollywood film industry, and in one of the more breath taking narrations he follows his fellow gangsters to fight in the mountains of Afghanistan as a Mujahadeen warrior (impersonating a CIA agent). As all experiences in India the events unfold in a wholly paradoxical matter full of intrigue and surprises where nothing turns out exactly as one would expect, for in a world of Maya nothing is really as it seems. The author has the rare gift to show the "the authentic face of India"; as Janus as that maybe. A country which if you travel as a tourist seems to offer you a different profile at almost every turn and encounter. In Shantaram one experiences India across the entire spectrum of its extremes, her dark brutal secret of hopelessness and wrath, as well as the fathomless compassion which sparks the flame of hope to burn eternally within her multitudes of beings. This is no where as well illustrated then in his description of the head of one of Bombay mafia family, Khader Kahn, a gangster and guru like figure with a spiritual philosophy based on modern physics and a view not unlike Teilhard De Chardin which concerns the evolution of the universe heading toward a state of maximum complexity which he terms: "God." The writing is so genuine, passionate and sincere, in its description of the tumultuous life of India's largest city and all the eccentric characters who fill it, that this in itself is worth the price of the ticket to Shantaram. No doubt, Shantaram along with some of the recent plethora of great English novels from subcontinent writers has helped to establish Mumbai and her characters as one of the worlds great literary settings of the early 21st century. The story is finally about the author's spiritual transformation and search for redemption in part as he pursues his underworld Anima, the beautiful and mysterious emerald eyed Karla, a Swiss/American also on the run, who devours novels by such authors as Mann, Schiller, Flaubert and Virgina Woolf, in their original language, and spews forth her own experiences of the fringes, in koan like musings while wandering stealthily among the teeming streets of Mumbai to facilitate the trade of guns, money, identity, and espionage. The author managed to contemplate the narrative while he was serving two years of a seven year sentence in an Australian maximum security prison while in solitary confinement. Anyway this is great novel, I was hooked from the book's first sentence and literally could not put it down. Here is how the first sentence reads: "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 the wall and being tortured. I realized, somehow, through the screaming in my mind, that even in that shackled , bloody helplessness, I was still free to hate the men who were torturing me, or to forgive them." (Amazingly after Roberts recorded the events in this book, he ran underworld missions in Sri Lanka, Zaire, Singapore, Italy, and was finally recaptured in Germany where he was fronting as singer for a Rock band. He was then sent back to Australia to serve out his remaining prison sentence. [...] ( It appears that soon the story will be heading to the cinema as Johnny Depp has bought the rights and he is conspiring with Russell Crowe to make the film. Thankfully Roberts is working on the screenplay.)

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts By Michael Hooper Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts is an epic story about one man’s struggle for freedom, friendship, adventure, love, camaraderie, peace and redemption. The book is about a man who escapes a prison in Australia and moves to Bombay, where he reinvents himself. He calls himself Lin, which is the name on his fake passport. In Bombay, he falls into a crowd of expatriates and slum dwellers. One of the first people he meets is Prabakar, a runner/salesman, who meets tourists at train stations, and brings them to hotels and restaurants and takes a cut from the proprietors. He also helps them exchange money, and score hashish. Prabakar takes a liking to Lin and recruits him into his business as a runner helping tourists. Prabaker calls him Linbaba. I can relate to this job because I worked as a runner helping tourists find hotel rooms in Athens, Greece, when I was a young man. Prabakar introduces Lin to his mother, who gives him a new name Shantaram, which means man of peace. Although he is not afraid to fight for his freedom, it seems that Lin is struggling for peace and redemption. He had been a heroin addict in Australia, where he lost his wife and child in a divorce. He was arrested for burglary and armed robbery, put in jail but he escapes over the wall and travels to Bombay. In Bombay, he falls in love with the city, the first thing he notices is its smell, "its sweet sweating smell of hope" and its "sour stifled smell of greed." One of my favorite places in the book is Leopold’s, a coffee shop bar where he and his friends meet on a regular basis to talk about politics and business and gossip. There he meets people like Karla and Didier Levy, Vickram and Ulla. His friend Prabakar invites him to live in the slum with him and his family. There he sees great need for medical care, and he starts a free medical clinic. Needing antibiotics and other medical supplies he makes a connection with the lepers of Bombay, who somehow acquire these medical supplies and sell them to him at a discount. He is not a medical doctor, but they call him a doctor. He’s actually trained in ambulatory care He helps people get through many struggles, cuts, bruising, inflections and an outbreak of cholera. Love is an abiding theme in this book, there is brotherly love, the love of friends and camaraderie, and the love of a father, or a father figure and romantic love. He falls in love with Karla, who is a very mysterious person with a past in Europe and America. She speaks multiple languages and blends in beautifully into the Bombay lifestyle. Lin is enchanted with her green eyes and beautiful hair and lovely clothing but perhaps most of all he is curious about her mysterious history. His love for Karla is complex taking on various forms -- from friendship to making love to her on a beach under moonlight. He loves their ability to talk for hours and connect. This book is one part James Michener and one part Ernest Hemingway and another part uniquely Australian. It captures the pure Wonderlust of Australians. I’ve met so many Australians, who have traveled the world, they’ve been everywhere and done all kinds of different things. The author Gregory David Roberts wrote this book so well because he lived it. He actually did lose his wife and child, while addicted to heroin and getting busted for armed robbery and ending up in jail in Australia. He broke out of jail and went to Bombay to start his life all over again. One of the most powerful man in Bombay is Abdel Khader Khan, a poet, philosopher and lord of gang of people who work in the black market trades, false passport industry, the gold trade, and the money exchange trade. Lin works for Khader Khan, who wants him to learn everything about his business.The book goes into detail on how his goondas make money in these trades. Abdel Kader Khan believes there are various levels of evil depending on the sin. Some sins are worse than others. Lin is really amazed at the man’s commanding presence and ability to generate extreme loyalty. While working in the false passport trade with two specialists, Lin acquires for himself about five passports. When someone’s visa is out of order, they could fix that with a specialty stamp. Lin goes to great links for Khader Khan. Another fascinating character in the book is Didier Levy, a 35 year old French Jew, who is a wonderful gossip talk head, who spends a lot of time at Leopold‘s, drinking alcohol and talking with friends, and watching business transact all around them, and getting a cut here and there from some of this business. He talks about the hashish trade and the local gangsters. And he talks about Karla. He says she has the power to make men shine like the stars, or crush them to dust. Karla and Didier once lived together for about a year in Bombay sharing a crazy fractured little apartment. Page 58. There are many funny and shocking stories in the book, including a description of how the locals in Bombay treat a person who is at fault for a car accident. The locals actually drag the driver out of the car and beat him up. There's also an endearing story about a beloved bear who gets locked up in prison. His caretakers stay in prison with him, so he is not lonely. Perhaps my favorite theme in the book is camaraderie among friends, especially when they gather at Leopold’s. I believe every person needs a group of friends. It’s tough being alone in this world, indeed it's even tougher when you are in a foreign country and you don't know anybody. There is some evidence that a person will live longer if they have regular contact with people. I go to a local coffee two or three times a week to visit with my friends. My comrades there are very special to me. Yet Leopold's is a different kind of place, because it attracts people from all walks of life, Greeks, Germans, Italians, Franch, American, Indian, and Iranians, and Afghans and Arabs and Africans all gathering at this place. There’s nothing quite like it in Topeka, but when I was in Barcelona in 1990 I fell into a crowd of expatriates. I was walking along Las Ramblas, enjoying the sights of people and places along this famous boardwalk. I saw a group of young men led by a tall, gregarious man. He said hello to me, and I said hello back and he asked if I were English, I said America. He asked, "Do you get high?" and I said, "yes," and he said "follow me." We ended at a coffee shop in a Square just off Las Ramblas, where we drank beer and smoked spliff’s. Perhaps my favorite birthday was when I announced that in five minutes, I would be 27 years old. Everybody started singing, happy birthday to me and sharing drinks and joints. We stayed up all night partying and I ended up sleeping on the beach with my comrade Eamon strumming his guitar. It was one of the most exhilarating, romantic, and illuminating experiences in my life. Shantaram is a huge book at 933 pages. I enjoyed 95% of it. There is some warlord gang fighting that occurs toward the end of the book and this seems to drag on for a while but all in all, I enjoyed the book very much Shantaram is on Apple TV. The 12 part miniseries is fantastic, but unfortunately was discontinued. I believe Gregory David Roberts was involved in writing the script. In some ways, the book is much better with more detail about life in India. There is a great deal of charity in the soul of Linbaba, he is always trying to support his friends, and the poor people who live in the slums. I think the spirit of Linbaba is a man who loves people, who cares about the suffering in the world. Shantaram is an appropriate name for this evolving man of the world.

A friend recommended this book and it was quite an enjoyable read. I felt I was on a spiritual journey through Bombay.

Ótimo livro

A world far away and very close all at once.

Brilliant.

Appassionante e coinvolgente, quel tipo di libro che, quando finisce, ti lascia dentro quella sensazione di aver perso i tuoi compagni di viaggio. Tra i libri più belli mai letti, consigliato però solo se si cerca una lettura che si perda anche in interrogativi quasi filosofici