Reviews

""Shantaram" is a novel of the first order, a work of extraordinary art, a thing of exceptional beauty. If someone asked me what the book was about, I would have to say everything, every thing in the world. Gregory David Roberts does for Bombay what Lawrence Durrell did for Alexandria, what Melville did for the South Seas, and what Thoreau did for Walden Pond: He makes it an eternal player in the literature of the world."
- Pat Conroy
""Shantaram" has provided me with the richest reading experience to date and I don't expect anybody to unseat its all-round performance for a long time. It is seductive, powerful, complex, and blessed with a perfect voice. Like a voodoo ghost snatcher, Gregory David Roberts has captured the spirits of the likes of Henri Charriere, Rohinton Mistry, Tom Wolfe, and Mario Vargas Llosa, fused them with his own unique magic, and built the most gripping monument in print. The land of the god Ganesh has unchained the elephant, and with the monster running amok, I tremble for the brave soul dreaming of writing a novel about India. Gregory David Roberts is a suitable giant, a dazzling guru, and a genius in full."
- Moses Isegawa, author of "Abyssinian Chronicles "and "Snakepit"
"Shantaram is, quite simply, the 1001 Arabian Nights of the new century. Anyone who loves to read has been looking for this book all their reading life. Anyone who walks away from Shantaram untouched is either heartless or dead or both. I haven't had such a wonderful time in years."
- Jonathan Carroll, author of "White Apples"
"Shantaram is dazzling. More importantly, it offers a lesson...that those we incarcerate are human beings. They deserve to be treated withdignity. Some of them, after all, may be exceptional. Some may even possess genius."
- Ayelet Waldman, author of "Crossing the Park""Utterly unique, absolutely audacious, and wonderfully wild, "Shantaram "is sure to catch even the most fantastic of imaginations off guard."
---"Elle"
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""Shantaram" had me hooked from the first sentence. [It]" "is thrilling, touching, frightening...a glorious wallow of a novel."
---"Detroit Free Press"
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"[A] sprawling, intelligent novel...full of vibrant characters...the exuberance of his prose is refreshing...Roberts brings us through Bombay's slums and opium houses, its prostitution dens and ex-pat bars, saying, You come now. And we follow."
---"The Washington Post"
"Inspired storytelling."
--"People"
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"Vivid, entertaining. Its visceral, cinematic descriptive beauty truly impresses."
--"USA"" Today"
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"Few stand out quite like "Shantaram" ...nothing if not entertaining. Sometimes a big story is its own best reward."
--"The New York Times"
..."very good...vast of vision and breadth."
--"Time Out"
"This massive autobiographical novel draws heavily from Roberts' vida loca. Don't let the size scare you away -" Shantaram" is one of the most gripping tales of personal redemption you'll ever read."
--"Giant Magazine"
"This reviewer is amazed that Roberts is here to write anything. Swallowed up by the abyss, somehow he crawled out intact....His love for other people was his salvation...Powerful books can change our lives. The potency of "Shantaram" is the joy of forgiveness. First we must regret, then forgive. Forgiveness is a beacon in the blackness."
--"Dayton"" Daily News"
""Shantaram" is loads of colorful fun, [it] rises to something grand in its evocations of the pungent chaos of Bombay. "
--"Minneapolis"" Star Tribune"
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""Shantaram" is a true epic. It is a huge, messy, over-the-top irresistible shaggy-dog story."
--"The ""Seattle"" Times"

Having ditched his revolutionary ideals for heroin, our narrator ends up imprisoned in Australia, then escapes to an evidently vividly depicted Bombay to smuggle drugs and arms. What's really scary is that Roberts has based his first novel on personal experience. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

With the grand sweep and scale of a Bollywood movie, Shantaram is unlike any other Australian novel for quite some time. It recounts the experiences of Lin, a loosely fictionalised character based on the author, the so-called Building Society Bandit who escaped from a Victorian maximum-security prison in 1980 and fled to India. Lin moves in different circles in steamy Bombay, from indolent expats on the run from reality to ever-smiling slum dwellers who cannot escape from their plight. His adventures take him to the homes of Bombay Mafioso, through the hellhole of the Colaba police station and into Afghanistan running guns to the mujaheddin. Although at times Roberts' text is over- written and his dialogue stilted, this is a rip-roaring read. At 933 pages the book stands out, but it is all the more remarkable because it is based on second-to-none, first-hand experience. Full of jailhouse philosophy, human frailty and resilience, Sufi wisdom and street-fighting tactics, Shantaram is by turns inspiring, hair raising and poignant. This warts-and-all Indian epic details the myriad struggles, triumphs, heartbreaks and joys of life on the subcontinent-- expect it to become a must-read for backpackers and long-haul airline passengers, as was The Beach. William Gourlay is a Melbourne-based editor, reviewer and sometime travel writer. C. 2003 Thorpe-Bowker and contributors