"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 19 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 10 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. As a gun-runner, he 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's a compelling tale of a hunted man who 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.
