Shantaram

In 1978 Gregory David Roberts committed a series of robberies while adducted to heroin, and was sentenced to nineteen years in prison. After two years, he escaped from a maximum-security prison in broad daylight, and became Australia’s most wanted man.

Hiding in Mumbai, he established a medical clinic for slum-dwellers, and worked as a counterfeiter, smuggler and gunrunner for one of the most charismatic branches of the Mumbai mafia. Shantaram – based on this ten-year period of Gregory David Roberts life – is a superbly written and gripping novel, and an authentic evocation of Mumbai life.

Press Reviews

‘Shantaram is a novel of the first order, a work of extraordinary art, a thing of exceptional beauty … Gregory David Roberts does for Mumbai 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, bestselling author of Prince of Tides, Beach Music and the Great Santini

‘…impossible to put down…reads like a travelogue, a thriller and discourse on the nature of good and evil rolled into one’ – India Today

‘…it’s brilliant’ – Today

‘…no writer in English has told Bombay’s story better than this Aussie…’ – Outlook

‘Shantaram is unputdownable’ —Times of India

‘Believable characters that grow on you and a fantastic plot make for an enjoyable, impressive read.’ —New Woman