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“Shantaram is dazzling. More importantly, it offers a lesson…that those we incarcerate are human beings. They deserve to be treated with dignity. Some of them, after all, may be exceptional. Some may even possess genius.”
— Ayelet Waldman, New York Times bestselling author
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“Few stand out quite like Shantaram…nothing if not entertaining. Sometimes a big story is its own best reward.”
— New York Times
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“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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“A sprawling, intelligent novel…full of vibrant characters…Bombay itself is Shantaram’s strongest performance and Roberts’s love of India and the people who live there is unmistakable and a joy to read about.”
— Washington Post
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“Vivid, entertaining…Its visceral, cinematic descriptive beauty truly impresses.”
— USA Today
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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] massive, thrillingly undomesticated potboiler…Roberts, who wrote the first drafts of the novel in prison, has poured everything he knows into this book and it shows. It has a heartfelt, cinemascope feel…A sensational read.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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“Mesmerizing…Bower weaves a world of interesting characters, both Indian and expatriates, and makes even the exaggerated moments believable. He keeps pace beautifully with Roberts’ writing style, which shifts continually from the descriptive and philosophical to the tragic to the broadly comic. Bower makes this unique milieu into one that’s fascinating and compelling.”
— AudioFile
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“An elegantly written, page-turning blockbuster…splendidly evoking an India few outsiders know.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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“Roberts graphically, even beautifully, evokes [the Bombay underground] milieu—he is as effective at imparting impressions as any good travel writer—in this complex but cohesive story about freedom and the lack of it, about survival, spiritual meaning, love, and sex; in other words, about life in what has to be one of the most fascinating cities in the world…Roberts is also a gifted creator of characters—not only Lindsay but also Prabaker, who becomes Lindsay’s guide, caretaker, and entree into various elements of Bombay society. Soon, too, one becomes aware and appreciative of Roberts’ felicitous writing style…it is difficult not to be ensnared by it.”
— Booklist
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“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
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“Crime and punishment, passion and loyalty, betrayal and redemption are only a few of the ingredients in Shantaram...every single sentence rings true…[Lin is] a soldier of fortune, a picaresque hero: the rascal who lives by his wits in a corrupt society. His story is irresistible.”
— Amazon.com, editorial review
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“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
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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 Charrière, 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
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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
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Shantaram is dazzling. More importantly, it offers a lesson...that those we incarcerate are human beings. They deserve to be treated with dignity. Some of them, after all, may be exceptional. Some may even possess genius.
— Ayelet Waldman, author of Murder Plays House