"Shantaram": reviews of the book by famous people. "Shantaram": reviews of the book by famous people. Is Shantaram a real story or not?
The novel "Shantaram", reviews of which are collected in this article, is the most famous work of the Australian prose writer Gregory David Roberts. The book is based on real events that happened to the author. The action of the work takes place on the streets of Indian Bombay. The novel was first published in 2003, and 7 years later it was translated into Russian. By this time, the worldwide circulation of the book exceeded one million copies.
What is this book about
Reviews about the novel "Shantaram" help to form an impression of this work. It is narrated in the first person. It begins with the moment the main character escapes from prison. At large, he is hiding under the name Lindsay Ford.
To escape from his pursuers, he comes to Bombay. This is one of the largest cities in the world, where it is easy to get lost. In the first part of this work, Lindsay Ford meets Prabaker, who characterizes himself as the best guide of this city. He helps Ford find housing and shows why Bombay is so unusual.
Literally in the very first days, the main character almost falls under a huge double-decker bus, since the traffic on the streets of Bombay is simply crazy. A charming girl named Karla saves him from misfortune. Reader reviews of the book "Shantaram" especially note how vividly the author described it. The girl has huge green eyes. It seems to the hero that this is what the sea could be like if it could achieve perfection.
Carla admits that she often goes to the Leopold bar, and she can be found there. In reviews of the book "Shantaram 1" many emphasize the documentary nature of everything the author writes about. He uses real-life place names and names of establishments. For example, the Leopold bar actually operates in Bombay; book lovers can sit there with pleasure.
Readers' reviews of the novel "Shantaram" focus on the fact that the bar is shown by the author as a semi-criminal place. This is how it is in real life. Ford becomes a regular there. Over time, he realizes that Karla is not here by chance, since she is somehow connected with shady business.
Friendship with Prabaker
A true friendship develops between the main character and Prabaker. In reviews of the book "Shantaram" (volume 1), many note that they like this kind of multiculturalism. Ford often sees Carla, falling in love with her more and more each time.
Prabaker shows the Australian guest what the real Bombay is, teaches him to speak Hindi and Marathi - the main Indian dialects, understandable to everyone here. Prabaker takes Ford to various places, as if testing him. They visit a market where children are sold, and come to a hospice where old people live out their last days.
Finally, they go to the guide’s home village. Here Ford spends the next six months. He works in the fields with everyone else, teaching children English. Here they start calling him Shantaram. As Prabaker's mother notes, literally translated it means "peaceful person." In reviews of the book "Shantaram", readers note that the hero has a chance to live on in peace. He is offered a teaching position, but he refuses.
On the way back to Bombay, he is beaten and all his most valuable things are taken away. Left without a livelihood, Ford makes money by becoming an intermediary between hashish sellers and foreign tourists. He remains to live in Prabaker's slums.
In reviews of the book "Shantaram", many note an important episode - Ford's journey with Carla to the so-called "standing monks". These are people who have vowed never to sit down. On this trip, the couple is attacked by an armed man intoxicated with hashish. They are saved by a stranger who introduces himself as Abdullah Taheri.
Returning to the slums, Ford finds a major fire in them. Having first aid skills, the main character finally finds his place. He becomes a doctor.
Second part of the novel
The second part of the novel "Shantaram", according to readers' reviews, is just as exciting as the first. It tells the story of Ford's life. He managed to escape from Australia's most secure prison using a hole in the roof. He learned about it when he worked on a repair team. Severe beatings forced him to escape.
Ford still dreams about prison even when he goes to bed in Bombay. In reader reviews of the book "Shantaram" many note the original way in which he fights nightmares. Ford walks around the city at night.
During one of these walks, he meets Abdel Kader Khan. He is one of the leaders of the Bombay mafia. The description of the book "Shantaram" and reviews of it highlight how skillfully the author depicted the division of the city between the crime barons, the young and ugly-looking Abdel Khan. Ford begins to communicate closely with him. He still has a family in Australia, but he does not expect to return to them, so he begins to consider Abdullah his brother, and Khan, whom everyone calls Khaderbhae, his father.
Ford Clinic
In reviews and reviews of the book "Shantaram", critics note that all the events in it are closely connected and interestingly intertwined. Thus, the main character, after a chance meeting on a night walk, finds his calling in the clinic. Having escaped from prison, he makes friends with crime bosses while free, but he himself remains law-abiding. His new friend Abdullah is feared by the slum dwellers, whom Ford plans to treat with medicines supplied by the same Abdullah and his accomplices.
4 months of such a measured and at the same time eventful life pass. Ford meets Carla, whom he has not seen for a long time, embarrassed by the fact that he lives in the slums. They have lunch on the 23rd floor of the World Trade Center. It is there that the main character learns about the mysterious Sapna, a local vigilante who kills the rich.
At the end of this part of the book, Ford confesses his love to Carla, but she rejects him because she hates love, because her lover once died due to the fault of the brothel owner.
The third part
Reviews of the book "Shantaram" by Gregory David Roberts note that the author keeps readers in suspense all the time. Thus, the next chapters describe a new scourge that befalls the inhabitants of the slums. A cholera epidemic begins there. All residents of the village are at risk. Ford and Carla have been fighting the epidemic for a week. In rare moments of rest, the girl tells him her story.
In critics' reviews of the book "Shantaram", many point out that this is one of the most important parts of the novel. It turns out that Carla was born in Switzerland. Her parents were creative people - an artist and a singer. When she was 9 years old, her father died, and her mother, unable to bear the loss, committed suicide.
The girl was taken in by her uncle, who lived in San Francisco. But he also died 3 years later. Karla remained to live with his wife, who hated her and deprived her of the most necessary things. As a high school student, she had to work as a nanny in order to have pocket money and the opportunity to buy something for herself.
This simple and peaceful work turned out to be risky for Clara. The father of one of her charges raped the girl. The aunt sided with the man and kicked 15-year-old Clara out of the house. After that she had to endure a lot of grief. One day she met an Indian businessman, who brought her to Bombay.
Dark Deeds
Having stopped the epidemic, Ford goes to the city to earn a little extra money. The clinic does not bring him any income. He used to make a living as a broker, but cholera has recently made his services in the slums unnecessary.
In the novel "Shantaram", the plot and reviews of which are given in this article, Ford's friend Carla asks for help. She needs to meet a certain person at Leopold, but she is afraid to go alone. A few hours before this meeting, an important event in the novel occurs - Ford and Carla become lovers.
The main character does not make it to the bar, but not because of Clara, but because he is arrested on the way. In reviews of the book "Shantaram", the genre of which is defined as drama, readers note that everything repeats itself in the hero's life. After a period of quiet life, he again finds himself in terrible conditions, where there are regular beatings and hunger. All this exhausts him greatly.
He is saved by Khaderbhai, who, having learned that Ford was in prison, pays a ransom for him.
Once free, Ford begins working for Khaderbhai. By this time, Carla had left town. Where, he doesn't know. He also does not know whose fault he ended up behind bars.
The main character's new occupation is false documents and smuggled gold. He starts earning decent money and rents an apartment in an elite area.
Troubled times in Bombay begin after the assassination of Indira Gandhi. There are police everywhere, and Ford is on the international wanted list. Suddenly he finds out that he ended up in prison because of a denunciation by a certain woman. But this does not clarify the situation.
He finds Karla in Goa. He admits to her that he went on an armed robbery in Australia to get money for the drugs he became addicted to after losing his daughter. This is how I ended up in prison for the first time. The girl asks him to stop working for Khaderbhai, but Ford decides that she is putting pressure on him and leaves.
In Bombay, he finds out that Sapna (a local vigilante) has been killed, and the woman who sent him to prison is a foreigner.
Fourth part
After a disagreement, Carla disappears. Ford likes her friend Lisa, but memories of his beloved prevent him from getting closer to her.
Meanwhile, Prabaker gets married. For the wedding, Ford gives him a taxi driver's license, and a few days later Abdullah dies in a shootout with the police. Soon Ford learns about the accident in which Prabaker was also involved. His taxi was hit by a handcart loaded with steel beams. Three days later, his friend dies in the hospital.
This is how Ford loses his closest people. He becomes depressed and spends three months in an opium den. Only Karla and Khaderbhai's bodyguard named Nazir save him.
Khaderbhai's new plan
Khaderbhai has a new case. He decides to supply weapons and medicine to Kandahar, which is besieged by Russian troops. He takes Ford with him as his assistant. Afghanistan has many conflicting tribes. To get into Kandahar, the mafia needs a foreigner who will introduce himself as an American sponsor of the war. This is the role Ford will have to fill.
Before leaving, Ford spends the night at Carla's. She persuades him to stay, but cannot confess her love.
Just before leaving, the main character learns that he was sent to prison by Madame Zhu, the owner of the brothel from which Ford freed Carla's friend. So she took revenge on him.
Meanwhile, readers will learn the life story of another hero - Khaderbhai. At the age of 15, he killed a person for the first time, starting a war between the clans. It happened in a village near Kandahar. Now he wants to return there to help his family.
Khaderbhai’s detachment moves across the territory of Afghanistan, constantly bumping into local tribes who have to pay tribute. They supply them with food and feed for the horses. The main character concludes that people are divided into those who kill to survive and those who live to kill.
It is worth noting that the novel is replete with similar reflections on life, which are widely quoted among fans. At the same time, many negative reviews about the book “Shantaram” are precisely based on the fact that all these wise phrases are too pompous and are worthless. The author is trying to be like Paolo Coelho. But his wisdom, like the reflections of the Brazilian prose writer, can only impress teenagers.
Let's return to the plot of the novel. Khaderbhai's detachment reaches the partisans. They spend the entire winter restoring their weapons, and plan to return home in the spring. On the last evening, Ford learns that Karla, like him, worked for Khaderbhai. She was looking for foreigners who could be useful to the mafiosi.
That's how she found Ford. It turns out that everything was a set-up - both the meeting with Karla and the acquaintance with Abdullah. The bandits used the clinic in the slums as a testing ground for smuggled drugs that were brought from abroad. Moreover, all this time Khaderbhai was aware of who was responsible for Ford's imprisonment, since Madame Zhu had repeatedly helped him in various matters.
Such unexpected plot twists have earned many positive reviews about the book "Shantaram" from famous people. By the way, now they are going to film the novel. For this right, Warner Bros. Already paid two million dollars.
Among the reviews of the book "Shantaram" by famous people is the opinion of Johnny Depp, who liked this work. Now he plans to play the main role in the film.
Meanwhile, Ford refuses to accompany Khaderbhai in the future, since he betrayed him. But he cannot sincerely begin to hate either the head of the mafioso or Karla, since during this time he has fallen in love with them.
Three days later, Khaderbhai's squad is ambushed. The mafiosi are killed and his camp is shelled. As a result, supplies of food, medicine and fuel were almost completely destroyed. The detachment believes that the reason for the shelling was the betrayal of their guide Habib, who brought them to Kandahar and then went to fight against the Russians, whom he hates.
Mortar shelling continues with enviable regularity. After one of them, only 9 people remain alive. The camp is surrounded on all sides. Supplies are depleted, and none of the scouts have returned. When everyone thinks the end has come, Khabib appears. He says that you can go to the southeast. The squad decides to fight their way to freedom.
Before leaving, one of Khaderbhai’s men finds chains on Habib’s neck that belonged to the disappeared scouts. Khabib is killed. The squad successfully breaks through, but Ford is concussed. He was wounded by a mortar.
Fifth part
The main character has a damaged eardrum, frostbitten hands, and wounds all over his body. He is placed in a Pakistani field hospital, and from there he is transferred to one of the friendly tribes. Nazir helps him in everything. Only thanks to him is it possible to avoid amputation of his hands.
It takes Ford and Nazir a month and a half to get to Bombay. It turns out that in the city Nazir must carry out Khaderbhai’s last order - to kill some person. Ford also has things to do - he wants to take revenge on Madame Zhu. It turns out that her brothel was looted and burned. She herself settled in some ruins. Ford is convinced that this woman is already broken and decides to let her live.
Meanwhile, the whole city learns about Khaderbhai's death. His people are forced to temporarily lie low. A new redistribution of power in the criminal world is beginning.
Ford grieves for his friends who died and for Carla, who betrayed him. Their romance is over, she is dating a new young man. Out of loneliness, the main character starts a relationship with Carla's friend Lisa, whom he once saved from Madame Zhu's brothel.
Lisa tells him the real story of Carla's life. She escaped from America, killing the man who raped her. On the plane flying to Singapore, I met Khaderbhai, and from then on I worked for him.
The ending of the novel
Ford becomes depressed. Abdullah brings him out of this state, who, it turns out, did not die. He was treated for his fatal wounds in Delhi. To take him to the Indian capital, friends had to kidnap the wounded Abdullah from the police station. A large number of such far-fetched plot lines, bordering on fantasy, led to a large number of negative reviews of the novel.
Ford is going through a deep personal crisis. He understands that he himself is to blame for the destruction of his family in Australia. At the same time, he is happy with Lisa. They understand each other, and he also has money, which is also important.
The people remaining from Khaderbhai's group have a real enemy. This is Chukha. Ford has to participate in its destruction. The group takes over the affairs that Chukha was in charge of, and this is the sale of pornography and drug trafficking. Ford understands that everything around him is changing.
Together with Abudullah and Nazir, he goes to Sri Lanka, where a civil war is raging. Everyone is sure that friends are leaving to fight.
Finally, Ford sees Carla for the last time. She is going to marry a wealthy admirer. But her heart still remains cold. Carla admits to Ford that it was she who destroyed Madame Zhu's business and burned down the brothel.
Ford learns details about Sapna, who, as it turns out, was not killed either. The King of the Poor, as everyone calls him, is gathering his own army. Ford spends his last night in Bombay in the slums. He meets Prabaker's son, who inherited his father's radiant smile and cheerful disposition. Ford understands the main thing: life goes on.
Like the novel "Shantaram". Roberts' new book "Shantaram. Shadow of the Mountain" has already been published.
Gregory David Roberts
"Shantaram"
Part one
Bombay greeted me with heat, exotic smells and people of various nationalities. Two years ago, I escaped from a maximum security prison in Australia with a fake passport, so I joined two good-natured Canadians in the hope that I would be mistaken for one of their company and my passport would not be subject to strict scrutiny. Freely leaving the airport, I boarded a bus to Bombay.
The bus was met at the hotel by hundreds of guides and merchants. Right at the door stood a little man with a huge radiant smile that immediately captivated me. The little man's name was Prabaker. He took me to a cheap hotel, occupying a floor of a multi-story building, and introduced me to the manager Anand. Having found me shelter, Prabaker began to entertain me. Calling himself the best tour guide in Bombay, he decided to show me the wonders of this city.
Due to the crazy traffic on the streets of Bombay, I almost got hit by a double-decker bus - someone's hands brought me back to the sidewalk in time. My savior turned out to be a beautiful green-eyed brunette named Carla. She interrupted my feeble attempts to speak by hinting that she often visited the Leopold bar. I soon became a regular at this bar, where illegal transactions were made. Karla was also involved in some kind of shady business.
After some time, Prabaker and I became friends. He shortened the name Lindsay Ford, under which I was hiding, to Lin, adding to it the respectful prefix “woman.” I saw Karla often, and each time I fell more and more in love with her. I also met Carla’s friends: gay Frenchman Didier Levy, German prostitute Ulla, her pimp Modena, Indian Vikram, who had recently returned from Denmark, and Carla’s friend, handsome Maurizio. Like all ugly people, I envied Maurizio and disliked him. I told everyone that I was writing a book. Before prison, I was actually a writer. This craft justified unexpected absences.
Over the next three weeks, Prabaker showed me the “real Bombay” and taught me to speak Hindi and Marathi, the main Indian dialects. During one of the excursions, due to the fault of our taxi driver, we had an accident, and for the first time I saw a crowd lynching the culprit of the accident. We were saved thanks to Prabaker - at the last moment he pulled me out of the wrecked car. For him it was an ordinary incident, but for me it was a shock. We visited many seedy and mysterious places, such as a slave market where orphans were traded, and a hospice where terminally ill people lived out their lives.
By showing me all this, Prabaker seemed to be testing my strength. The final test was my trip to his home village of Sunder. I lived with the Prabaker family for six months, worked with everyone else in the public fields and helped the local teacher by teaching English lessons. Prabaker's mother gave me the name Shantaram, which means "peaceful person." They tried to persuade me to stay on as a teacher, but I refused.
On the way to Bombay I was beaten and robbed. Now I had no money to rent a room at the Ananda hotel. Quite by accident, I found a source of income - I became an intermediary between foreign tourists and local hashish dealers. I moved to live in the Prabaker slums, where I was given a separate hut. Prabu arranged for Karla and me to take another excursion to the “standing monks” - people who have vowed never to sit down or lie down. There we were attacked by some half-mad man, high on hashish. He had already raised his saber over my head when the stranger, who called himself Abdullah Taheri, very quickly disarmed the madman.
On the evening of my move to the slums there was a fire and people were injured. With little first aid experience, I dove headfirst into burn care. During the fire, I met the main man of our slum, Kazim Ali Hussein. That night I found my place - I became a doctor.
Part two
I escaped from prison through a hole in the roof of the building where the guards lived. The building stood near the gate and was being repaired at that moment. My friend and I were part of the repair crew, so the guards did not pay attention to us. We managed to escape from Australia's most secure prison in broad daylight. I escaped to escape the daily brutal beatings. I dreamed about this prison at night, but I didn’t want to return there even in my dreams, so every night I wandered around silent Bombay. I didn’t see my old friends, although I missed Karla. I was completely absorbed by the craft of healing. Besides, I was ashamed that I lived in a slum.
During such a night walk, Abdullah approached me and invited me into a car parked nearby. This is how I met one of the leaders of the Bombay mafia, Abdel Kader Khan. This handsome, middle-aged man, a respected sage, introduced a system that divided the city into districts, each of which was led by a council of crime barons. People called him Khaderbhai. That evening I became closer to Abdullah. My wife and daughter were lost to me, and in Abdullah I saw a brother, just as in Khaderbhai I saw a father.
Since that night, my amateur clinic has been regularly supplied with medicines and medical instruments. Abdullah made an agreement with a doctor in one of the Bombay hospitals, and now I could send especially seriously ill patients to him. Prabaker didn't like my brother-in-law. He and other slum dwellers told me that Abdullah was Khaderbhai's assassin and a very dangerous man. I believed them, but I still liked Abdullah - we were too similar.
In my spare time when I was not sick, I was engaged in mediation, which brought me a decent income. Despite extreme poverty, people in our slums lived together like one family. Rare quarrels were settled by Kazim Ali, making very wise decisions.
Four months have passed. Occasionally I saw Carla, but I never approached her, because I was poor and lived in the slums. My knowledge of the Marathi dialect, which I improved in the village of Prabakera, helped me a lot. Marathi is not as common as Hindi and Indians loved that I learned the language.
Carla came to me herself. That day we had lunch on the 23rd floor of the World Trade Center under construction, around which our temporary slums grew. The workers set up a whole village there with farm animals, which they called the “Heavenly Village”. It was there that I first saw the word “Sapna” written on the wall in English. I was told that Sapna is the name of an unknown avenger who brutally kills the rich people of Bombay.
Carla needed my help to rescue her friend Lisa from the Palace, Madame Joux's notorious brothel. Due to the fault of this mysterious woman, Carla's lover and her friend once died. Karla did not want to use force - Madame could take revenge by splashing acid in Lisa’s face. I had to pretend to be an American embassy employee who wanted to ransom the girl on behalf of her father. Our scam was a success - we snatched Lisa from the clutches of madam. Later I confessed my love to Carla, but she didn’t want to hear about it. She hated love.
Some time later, Khaderbhai asked me to give some English lessons to his eleven-year-old nephew Tariq. The boy had to live with me in the slums to learn a life lesson. I didn’t need such responsibility, but I couldn’t refuse Khaderbhai - I respected him too much.
Part three
During the three months I lived with Tariq, I managed to become attached to an intelligent and courageous boy. He reminded me of the daughter I would never see. While returning from Khaderbhai, I witnessed an accident. The car collided with a cart, and the angry crowd almost tore to pieces two blacks - the passenger and the driver of the car. I helped them fight off and escape. The black man's name was Hassan Obikwa. Didier later reported that in the city, Obikwu is called the “Body Snatcher.”
Some time later, one of my friends’ wife became seriously ill. Paravati, Prabaker's beloved, also fell ill. These were the first signs of the cholera epidemic, which soon swept through the village. For six days Kazim Ali and I fought this disease, and Karla helped us. During one of the brief respites, she told me her story.
Carla Saarnen was born in Basel, in the family of an artist and singer. The father died, a year later the mother poisoned herself with sleeping pills, and the nine-year-old girl was taken by her uncle from San Francisco. He died three years later, and Karla was left with her aunt, who did not love the girl and deprived her of the most necessary things. High school student Carla worked part-time as a babysitter. The father of one of the children raped her and said that Carla provoked him. The aunt took the side of the rapist and kicked the fifteen-year-old orphan out of the house. Since then, love has become inaccessible to Carla. One day on a plane she met an Indian businessman, and her life changed forever. I didn’t ask who this businessman was, which I regret to this day.
When the epidemic subsided, I went to the city to earn a little extra money. The day turned out to be stormy. At first, while helping Anand, I saved a young drug addict from an overdose, then Ulla intercepted me. She needed to meet some person at Leopold's. She was afraid to go to the meeting alone and asked me for help. I felt danger, but agreed.
A few hours before the meeting, my feet led me to Carla's house. We made love for the first time, so I had to run to Leopold. On the way, the police stopped me, pushed me into a car without explanation and took me to the police station. I lived in a room of four cells, which could accommodate 40 people and housed 240, for three weeks. I was then taken to Arthur Road Prison.
Regular beatings, blood-sucking insects and hunger exhausted my strength over several months. I could not send the news to freedom - everyone who tried to help me was severely beaten, and soon my cellmates began to avoid me. Khaderbhai himself found out where I was and sent Vikram for me with a ransom.
Having recovered from prison, I began working for Kader at his request. Karla was no longer in town. We parted too suddenly, and I was very worried: did she think that I had run away. I wanted to know by whose will I went through this hell.
By dealing in smuggled gold and fake passports, I earned good money and was able to rent a decent apartment. I rarely met my friends from the slum, and became even closer to Abdullah. I no longer tried to heal people - in prison I lost this ability along with my self-confidence.
Soon Bombay was rocked by the news of Indira Gandhi's death. These are turbulent times. I was on the international wanted list, and only an unpaid debt to Khaderbhai kept me in the city, and his influence protected me. I learned from Didier that I was put in prison on the denunciation of some woman. Kader transferred me from one type of activity to another. He wanted me to explore all the branches of his underground empire.
I met again with Lisa Carter, whom I had once rescued from Madame Zhu's stash. The girl got rid of drug addiction and now worked in Bollywood, looking for foreigners to act as extras. On the same day I met Ulla. She again had problems with Modena and Maurizio, connected by common affairs, and I promised to help her in exchange for information about Karl. Ulla knew nothing about my arrest.
I found Karla in Goa, where we spent a week. I told my loved one that I was involved in armed robbery to get money for the drugs I became addicted to when I lost my daughter. On the last night in Goa, she asked me to stay and gave me a choice between love and work for Kader. My life could have completely changed, but I was stubborn and couldn't handle pressure. In the morning I left for Bombay
In the city, I learned that Sapna had brutally killed one of the mafia council. I had to come to grips with counterfeit passports, which I succeeded in doing. Dillier discovered that the woman who put me in prison was a foreigner living in Bombay.
It soon became known that three Africans wanted to kill me. Abdullah and I tracked down these people. This turned out to be another of Maurizio's evil tricks. He owed them a large amount of money and turned the tables on me. The Africans had to be sent home. I found Maurizio with Ulla, who lived with Lisa. I didn't kill him, which I soon regretted.
Part four
Under the leadership of Abdul Ghani, I dealt with false passports, making air travel both within India and abroad. For Lisa, I provided foreigners for filming and even starred in several episodes myself. I liked her, but memories of the missing Karla prevented me from getting closer to her.
Soon I had to deal with Mauricio again. Having met Modena, Ullya took money from him for safekeeping. Mauricio followed them to Ulla's apartment, and she killed him. Hassan Obikwa helped dispose of the body. Maurizio deceived a Nigerian by robbing him of money, which Modena subsequently stole and gave to Ulla. It happened in a cheap hotel. Mauricio tortured Modena for a long time to find out where the money was, and at that time Ulla was in the next room. She left without untying the unfortunate Modena. I sent a messenger to this hotel, but Modena disappeared. I used the money to buy Ulla a German passport, rent Lisa a new apartment and pay Obikwe.
Prabaker's wedding gift was "a transfer giving him ownership of the taxi." A few days later, my adopted brother Abdullah died. The police decided that he was Sapna, and Abdullah was shot in front of the police station. Before I had time to come to my senses, I was informed about the accident in which Prabaker had been involved. A handcart loaded with steel beams drove into his taxi. Prabu's lower half of his face was blown off, and he died in the hospital for three days.
Losing my closest friends devastated me. I spent three months in an opium den, high on heroin. Nazir, Khaderbhai's faithful bodyguard, who used to dislike me very much, and Karla took me to a house on the coast. There I recovered for several months, trying to get rid of drug addiction. Kader assured me that Abdullah was not Sapna - he was slandered by his enemies. My named father told me about his intention to deliver ammunition, spare parts and medicine to Kandahar, which was besieged by the Russians. He intended to carry out this mission himself, and invited me with him. Afghanistan was full of warring tribes. To get to Kandahar, Khaderbhai needed a foreigner who could pretend to be an American “sponsor” of the Afghan war. This role fell to me.
Before leaving, I was able to say goodbye to Carla. This was our last night. I could refuse the dangerous journey if she admitted that she loved me, but I could not love Karl.
Posing as single travelers, we reached the border city of Karachi, where we had to hide from Russian spies - someone had betrayed us to local counterintelligence. The core of Abdel Kader Khan's detachment was formed in this city. Before leaving, Didier gave me a letter from which I learned that Madame Joux had put me in prison. Now I knew that I was going to war for the love of Khaderbhai and would return to take revenge on madam.
We spent a month in the Pakistani border city of Quetta. Kader told me how in his youth he was expelled from his native village. At the age of fifteen, he killed a man and started an inter-clan war. It ended only after Kader disappeared. Now he wanted to return to his native village, located near Kandahar, and help his relatives.
To cross the Afghan border, we went deeper into the mountain gorges. We were led by Habib Abdur Rahman. The Russians massacred his family and he became obsessed with revenge. From time to time we crossed the territories of warring tribes, paid tribute to the leaders, and they supplied our already large detachment with fresh food and feed for horses. The journey was dangerous because we walked at night. After the first shelling, I had to return to the profession of a doctor. Finally we reached the Mujahideen camp. During the journey, Khabib became completely mad. He slaughtered one of our wounded, ran away from the camp and started his own war.
We spent the entire winter repairing weapons for the Afghan partisans who controlled the area around Kandahar, which had been captured by the Russians. Finally Khaderbhai ordered preparations to return home. The evening before leaving revealed many secrets to me. Kader said that he had known Karla for a long time. She worked for him, looking for foreigners who could be useful to Kader. That's how she found me too. Everything was a set-up: our meeting and our acquaintance with Abdullah. My makeshift clinic in the slums was being used as a testing ground for smuggled drugs. Kader also knew about my imprisonment. Madame Zhu helped him negotiate with politicians in exchange for my arrest. Caught up in a wave of rage, I refused to accompany Khaderbhan to his village, where he wanted to deliver the horses. The world I created in Bombay has disappeared. I lost my father, brothers and lover. However, I could not hate Kader and Karla. I still loved them.
Three days later, Nazir brought Kader’s corpse to the camp. On the same day, the camp was shelled, destroying supplies of fuel, food and medicine. After the funeral of Abdel Kader Khan, a council was held, which was chaired by the eldest Afghan, Suleiman Shahbadi. Nazir said that their detachment fell into a snare set to capture Habib, who committed atrocities, horrifying everyone. Suleiman believed that the shelling of our camp was a continuation of the hunt for Khabib.
After another mortar attack, nine people remained alive. We survived for four weeks on the meat of the only surviving goat. The camp was surrounded, and we could not get food, and the scouts we sent disappeared. Khabib suddenly appeared and said that the south-eastern direction was clear, and we decided to make our way.
On the eve of the breakthrough, one of the people from our detachment killed Khabib - he saw chains on his neck that belonged to the missing scouts. During the breakthrough, I was shell-shocked by a mortar shot.
Part five
Nazir pulled me out from under fire. In addition to a damaged eardrum, I received several minor wounds in my legs, chest and stomach. My hands were severely frostbitten, and they were not amputated only thanks to Nazir. We were saved from under fire by the people of Shah Massoud, who also fired at us, mistaking us for Russians. The survivors were transported to a Pakistani camp hospital.
It took us six weeks to get to Bombay, hiding from the Pakistani police. My blond hair and blue-gray eyes were too noticeable, and I had to change my color and wear dark glasses. Nazir aspired to Bombay more than others. He had to carry out Khaderbhai's last order - to kill some person. I was drawn by the desire to take revenge on Madame Zhu.
I did this after getting some money. Didier told me that the Palace was plundered and burned by a crowd, and Madame lives somewhere in the depths of these ruins. Didier came with me. Madame Zhu was guarded by twin eunuchs. I would have had a hard time if it weren’t for Didier, who arrived at the scene of the battle with a pistol in his hand. I did not kill Madame - she was already defeated and broken.
Nazir also fulfilled Kader's last wish - he killed Abdul Ghani. He believed that Khaderbhai was spending too much money on the war and used Sapna to remove his rivals. It was because of Ghani's denunciation that the Pakistani police persecuted us.
Soon all of Bombay learned about Kader's death. I and the rest of his group had to temporarily lay low. When the civil strife associated with the redistribution of power was over, I again took up false documents, and contacted the new council through Nazir.
Despite being busy, I was lonely and longing for Abdullah, Khaderbhai and Prabaker. I had not met Carla, although I knew that she had returned to Bombay with a new friend. An affair with Lisa saved me from loneliness. She told me that Carla fled the United States by killing the man who raped her. After boarding a plane to Singapore, she met Kader and began working for him. This didn't change my attitude towards Carla. I still loved her, but my once warm feeling turned into cold adoration.
After Lisa’s story, I was overcome with deep melancholy, I thought about drugs, and at that moment Abdullah appeared in front of me, alive and well. After an encounter with the police, Abdullah was kidnapped from the station and taken to Delhi, where he spent a year being treated for near-fatal wounds. He returned to Bombay to eliminate the remaining members of Sapna's gang.
The new mafia council was headed by Salman Mustan, and Tariq was being groomed to replace him. The group was still not involved in drugs and prostitution - this disgusted Kader Khan. However, some members were inclined to drug trafficking under pressure from one of the leaders of a neighboring group named Chukha.
Soon I met Modena. Mauricio disfigured his face. Modena secretly followed Ulla's acquaintances, hoping to meet his beloved. He knew that Ulla had gone to Germany, but he was still waiting for her. Modena believed that I killed Maurizio, and was grateful to me. I didn't try to dissuade him. Modena managed to cope with the pain that Ulla and Mauricio caused him. After our meeting, I was also able to admit that I was to blame for the breakup of my family and come to terms with this guilt. During this peaceful period, I was almost happy - I had money and Lisa.
Having reached an agreement with Sapna’s surviving accomplice, Chukha decided to oppose our group. We had to destroy Chukha and his minions. I participated in the operation because I could not leave Abdullah alone. We won, inheriting the Chukha territory with drug trafficking and pornography trade. I understood that now everything would change.
Abdullah went to Sri Lanka, where at that moment there was a civil war. Kader was going to take part in it, and Abdullah and Nazir decided to continue his work and invited me with them. I agreed - there was no place for me in the new mafia. Our last meeting with Carla was peaceful. She invited me to come with her, but I refused, realizing that they didn’t love me. Carla was going to marry her rich friend, but her heart was still cold. Karla admitted that it was she who burned Madame Zhu’s house and participated in the creation of Sapna along with Gani, but did not repent of anything. I also learned that Ulla has reunited with Modena.
Sapna turned out to be indestructible - I was told that the king of the poor was gathering his own army. I spent the night after the meeting in Prabaker's slums, where I met his son, who had inherited his father's wide, beaming smile. Life went on. Retold Yulia Peskovaya
The first part tells the story of the protagonist's arrival in Bombay, where he went after escaping from an Australian prison with a false passport. There he meets Prabaker, who later became his friend, who finds the hero a cheap hotel and shows him the city. On the street of Bambay, the hero meets the brunette Carla, who is engaged in shady business.
The hero takes on a new name - Lindsay Ford (Lina for short). He often meets Carla and falls in love with her. Meet her friends. Lina appears to them as a writer, which in fact he was even before prison.
Prabaker teaches Lina Indian dialects and introduces him to the real Bambay, testing his strength. The last test for Lina was a trip to Probaker’s home village of Sunder, where they lived for six months, working together in public fields.
While returning to Bombay, Lina was beaten and robbed. Without money for a hotel room, he settles in the slums of Prabaker, where on the night of his move there is a fire. There, Lina meets the main man of the slum, Kazim Ali Hussein, and becomes a doctor.
The second part begins with Lina's memories of the prison escape. He managed to escape from prison in broad daylight. Lina decided to escape due to daily brutal beatings. Living in the slums, he stops seeing Carla and her friends. He was ashamed of his place of residence. The hero was fascinated by the practice of healing.
One day he met the head of the mafia, Abdel Kader Khan. He divided the entire city into districts, each of which was led by a council of crime barons. The main mafioso was respected by everyone and was called Khaderbhai. The main character got along with the head of the mafia. This new alliance was not approved by Prabaker and other slum residents. However, Lina's clinic was now well supplied with medicines and medical instruments.
Lina sometimes saw Karla, but did not approach her, ashamed of his poverty. One day she came to him herself. While having lunch at the Mall, Leena notices the word "Sapna", which means an avenger who kills the rich people of Bambay. Carla asks Lina to rescue her friend from Madame Zhu's brothel. They succeed.
One day Khaderbhai asked Lina to teach English to his nephew Thorik. The boy had to live in the slums with Lina.
The third part begins with Lina's memories of her daughter, who was very reminiscent of Torik. A plague began in the village. Lina, Karla and Kazi Alim are trying to overcome the disease. When the epidemic passed, Lina breaks out into the city. Where the police grab him without any explanation and put him in a cell where he spent three whole weeks. He is then transferred to Arthur Road Prison. Khaderbhai buys Leena out of prison.
The main character began working for Khaderbhai, dealing in smuggled gold and false documents. Stops treating people.
A year later, Lina finds Karla in Goa, who asks him to make a choice between his beloved and his job. Unable to bear the pressure, Lina returns to Bambay.
The fourth part tells about Lina's illegal business in counterfeit passports under the leadership of Abdul, who was soon shot by the police, who mistook him for Sapna.
Khaderbhai takes Leena on a dangerous journey to Afghanistan. Knowing that he was imprisoned by Madame Zhu, Lina decides to go to war for the love of her adopted father with the intention of returning and avenging herself.
Throughout the winter they help repair weapons for the Afghans who control the area around Kandahar. There, Lina learns from Khaderbhai that Karla is working for him, looking for foreign agents, that contraband drugs were tested in his clinic, and Khaderbhai also knew about the imprisonment. After this, Lina refuses to accompany Khaderbhai from the village, where he is killed. Breaking out of the encirclement, Lina was shell-shocked.
The fifth part begins with a description of Lina's injuries. Returning to Bombay, he changes his appearance. Regretting revenge on Madame Zhu, he looks for her in the ruins of the palace. But Lina did not kill her.
The news of Khaderbhai's death caused a new redistribution of power. The mafia was led by Salman Mustan. Lina met Abdul, who had been treated for a whole year from fatal wounds, who wanted to destroy Chukha, a member of Sapna’s gang. Friends won this confrontation. Sapna himself turned out to be indestructible.
Without exaggeration, Gregory David Roberts' novel "Shantaram" can be called a real sensation in the book world. This work topped all bestseller lists and sold a total of 6 million copies. Today it is compared to the masterpieces of the best writers of modern times, from Bradbury to Hemingway. According to the Readrate rating (based on the reader's choice of millions of users of PocketBook readers), "Shantaram" is in second place after "Fahrenheit 451" and ahead of such cult books as "The Catcher in the Rye", "The Picture of Dorian Gray", "Three Comrades" " and "Fight Club".
The novel is an adventurous confession of a former drug addict who spent time in prison and escaped to India, where he literally has to survive after falling to the very bottom. It’s hard to believe that one person could have so many adventures, wanderings and trials. The readers' love was won by the friendliness and openness of the main character, who quickly makes friends in India, and the mother of his closest friend gives him the Indian name Shantaram.
The book is distinguished by a piercing dynamic plot, which is closely intertwined with spiritual transformations, philosophical statements, wisdom and aphorisms of the heroes, inspiring to accept what is happening as it is.
10 facts about “Shantaram”
1. The novel is by Gregory David Roberts about his 10-year stay in the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) in the 80s.
3. Roberts had to start writing the book from the very beginning three times, as the manuscripts were twice destroyed by prison guards.
4. Translated from the Marathi language, the word “shantaram” means “a peaceful person” or “a person to whom God has granted a peaceful fate,” which is a kind of philosophical irony, since the fate of the main character is complicated and even tragic in places.
5. All the characters in the novel are fictional, but the events described are real. So, in Bombay there is a cafe “Leopold” with marble halls, there really is a “Paanch Papi”, in which the main character appears (and the writer himself is easily recognizable in him). In addition, in the city you can find yourself in the slums where Gregory David Roberts lived and see Rukhmabai - the woman who gave him the name Shantaram.
6. Anonymous Content and Paramount Television will film a series based on “Shantaram,” which was greeted with great joy by Roberts. According to him, television is the ideal medium for his book.
7. After imprisonment, the writer lived in Australia (Melbourne), Germany and France, but still returned back to India, Mumbai. There he founded a charitable foundation for helping and caring for the poor.
8. In 2015, the second part of the novel was published - Roberts wrote in the book “Shadow of the Mountain”.
9. Many book and travel bloggers believe that reading Shantaram is the most lightning-fast immersion into real India.
10. Today in Mumbai they conduct excursions to the places of “Shantaram”: tourists are offered to visit the most colorful places in the city, from slums to luxury hotels.
Quotes from the book:
“One Mujahideen warrior once told me that fate gives us three teachers, three friends, three enemies and three great loves in our lives. But all twelve appear in other guises, and we will never recognize them until we fall in love, abandon them and fight with them.”
“The truth is that there are no good or bad people. Good and evil are not in people, but in their actions. People remain just people, and they are connected with good or evil by what they do - or refuse to do. The truth is that in one moment of true love, in the heart of any person - both the noblest of all, and the most lost - is contained, like in a lotus cup, all life, all its meaning, content and purpose. The truth is that all of us - every one of us, every atom, every galaxy and every particle of matter in the Universe - are moving towards God."
“A man becomes a man only after he has won the love of a woman, earned her respect and retained her trust, and without this he is not a man.”
“The only kingdom that makes a man a king is the kingdom of his soul. The only power that has any real meaning is the power that can improve the world."
I have come across the book “Shantaram” several times in stores. But the blurb for it didn’t force me to make a purchase: it said something about the adventures of an Australian adventurer. He escaped from prison, moved to India, etc. I don’t like adventurers. But the book was in the Top Sales Leaders for 4 years in a row - in the end, I decided to buy it. And it was written in 2003.
To my surprise, it is also partly autobiographical. I think that most of the stories from it are made up, but there is some basis. So Gregory David Roberts (born in 1952), indeed, was in prison in Australia for 2 years for bank robbery (he was given 19 years), really fled to India, where he lived for 10 years: from 1980 to 1990. He got involved with the local mafia. He said that he fought in Afghanistan (however, you shouldn’t believe him 100%). It is known that in 1990, Roberts was taken into custody while illegally importing heroin into Frankfurt. He was subsequently extradited to Australia and spent more than 6 years in prison. In prison he began writing Shantaram. After his release, he finished the book, became famous, lived in Europe, married a French woman, and now settled again in Bombay, where he founded a hospital for the poor and some kind of environmental foundation.
Roberts says that all the characters in his novel are fictitious. Again, whether this is true or not, we cannot verify: somewhere an obvious construction and fairy tale is visible, and somewhere realistic details are visible.
The novel is written unevenly: at first it’s interesting, then not so much. But the beginning is exciting. The hero with a fake passport disembarks at the Bombay port and immediately realizes that he really likes it here: “The first thing I noticed on that first day in Bombay was the unusual smell. I felt it already in the transition from the plane to the terminal building - before I heard or saw anything in India. This smell was pleasant and excited me, in that first minute in Bombay, when, having broken free, I re-entered the big world, but it was completely unfamiliar to me. Now I know that it is the sweet, disturbing smell of hope destroying hate, and at the same time the sour, musty smell of greed destroying love. It is the smell of gods and demons, of decaying and reborn empires and civilizations. This is the blue smell of sea leather, noticeable anywhere in the city on the seven islands, and the bloody metallic smell of cars. This is the smell of bustle and peace, all the vital activity of sixty million animals, more than half of which are human beings and rats. It is the smell of love and broken hearts, the struggle for survival and cruel defeats that forge our courage. This is the smell of ten thousand restaurants, five thousand temples, tombs, churches and mosques, as well as hundreds of bazaars where they sell exclusively perfumes, spices, incense and fresh flowers... And now, whenever I come to Bombay, first of all I smell this smell - it welcomes me and says that I have returned home.”
On the way from the airport to the city, he saw slums and was outraged that such an ugly phenomenon existed in India. But then I took a closer look: the closets were clean, the people were cheerful, the women were dressed in bright, beautiful clothes, everyone was busy with something, many were singing. And he also saw a white man living among the Hindus - it seemed that he was completely happy.
In Bombay, the hero met a Hindu who became for him the personification of India. It was a young guy named Prabaker. Prabu agreed to be the hero's guide around Bombay for a very small fee. They soon became friends. The guide gave the hero the name Lin (before this it was impossible to understand his name).
Prabaker himself is the ideal savage found in the books of the past. This is Voltaire's Candide or Cooper's Chinganchuk. He is simple-minded, friendly, funny, he has such a smile that it is impossible to resist, he says stupid things, but sometimes centuries-old folk wisdom is visible in his statements.
Prabaker teaches Lin to understand life. For example, he takes him to a secret slave market where children from 3 to 10 years old are sold. They are groped, forced to sing, dance, and show the goods with their faces. Nightmare? But India is a huge country with more than a billion people, and there is always famine, epidemic, flood, war somewhere and hundreds of thousands of children remain orphans. Those who are sold into slavery will become prostitutes, dancers or servants, but they will live and the rest will die. Or the slums: they are terrible, but without them many people would have nowhere to lay their heads at all. There is a waiting list for the right to live in the slums, and not everyone will be accepted there.
Or at the bus stop you need to ask where the bus goes. Why, there is a number? It turns out that drivers on unpopular routes post someone else’s number so that people come up to them and ask if they are going there - that’s the communication that an Indian needs.
Lin is imbued with Probaker's wisdom, and he takes him with him to the village where he comes from. And Lin stayed in the village for 6 months, worked in the fields, learned the Marathi language, and he learned Hindi in the city. This later helped him a lot, because... Indians are simply delighted with foreigners who can speak their languages.
Unfortunately, on the way back, Lin and Probaker were robbed. Lin lost his livelihood, but Probaker gave him a recommendation to settle in a slum settlement on the outskirts of the construction of the Trade Center. There, Lin began to treat patients, providing them with primary medical care. He once completed a medical aid course and helped fellow drug addicts and those who had been beaten in prison. He himself was often beaten.
These pages of the novel are the most entertaining. They talk about funny customs. For example, over regular underpants, you must wear overpants. Prabaker almost fainted when Lin undressed to wash himself in the backyard of his village house. He immediately ran to look for his friend's underpants and lied that he had diarrhea on the train and his underpants had to be thrown away. “What, you said I shit myself on the train? “You couldn’t say that you don’t have any outer panties at all!”
But when Lin had already settled in the slum, he found out that all the men went to shit on the dam. You need to sit with your buttocks towards the ocean and relax. At the same time, it is considered not shameful to discuss who had bowel movements and how.
When Prabu went to see his bride, he could see her only in the presence of his mother, and the lovers could exchange glances only when the mother lowered her eyes downwards. And she only did this if she was eating something. Therefore, he brought a lot of food to the date to treat his future mother-in-law. Such strictness despite the fact that prostitutes were encountered at every turn.
The story with the bear turned out to be funny, although a little annoying. Lin made himself another friend, from the mafia. When Abdullah (the mafia for some reason consisted of Muslims) hugged him, Lin said that he was hugging like a bear. Abdullah did not understand him and decided that in Australia people have a tradition of hugging bears. So he sent him trainers with the bear Kano. This was the friendliest bear in India. Then, when Lin was already a member of the mafia, he had to visit the trainers and Kano in prison. There he was told that a man must take care of his bear. The phrase sunk into Lin's soul. For the third time, the bear had to be taken out of Bombay. Lin came up with the idea of disguising him as the god Ganesha (the elephant-headed god). Everyone they met was amazed that Ganesha was nodding his head, and then they talked about it as if it were a miracle. It is clear that the story about the bear was invented from “A” to “Z”.
Life in the slums was hard, but it was brightened up by universal friendship and caring for each other. Lin generally understood that in India everyone is forced to love each other, because otherwise, with such crowding, they would all fight and disappear from the face of the earth long ago.
One day he learned another lesson. One of his neighbors killed a very bad man and turned himself in to the police. Lin wanted to help him, but he said that he had to serve the full sentence for his crime and thereby atone for his guilt. This point of view was new to Lin. He used to pride himself on escaping punishment.
But, in addition to ordinary people, Lin also communicated with criminals. The leading man in this area of Bombay was Abdel Kader Khan. The land under the slum belonged to him. Kader invited Lin to his place, gave him Abdullah to help him (who then sent him a bear as a gift) and began to supply the Australian’s makeshift first-aid post with medicines that were obtained in a somewhat exotic way: they were stolen by lepers.
In Kader Khan Lin found a father, and in Abdullah a brother. There was also a girl, Karla, who replaced his lost lover (Lin began to rob banks to have money for drugs, and turned to drugs to forget about his wife and child who abandoned him).
Carla was born in Switzerland, raised in the United States, and in Bombay was on the run from the law, just like Lin. Lin met her by chance. Subsequently, they met in the same bar, where the white diaspora of Bombay and tourists gathered. Regular visitors include pimps, prostitutes, and adventurers.
But the main thing was the relationship with Kader - he was a very charismatic person. All his subordinates sincerely loved him. Kader had his own theory about good and evil. He assumed that the Universe was formed from the Big Bang. At first it consisted of the simplest elements, and then they became more and more complex. Thus, the world tends to become more complex. And the most difficult thing is God. Therefore, what contributes to complexity is good, and what contributes to simplification is evil. Murder, for example, is evil because living things are more complex than non-living things.
Kader loved to talk about philosophical topics and listen to blind singers.
While trying to help Carla with a case, Lin incurred the vengeance of brothel owner Madame Zhu, who paid a bribe to have him put in prison. Lin spent 2 months in prison, where he was beaten, and lost 45 kg. Kader pulled him out of there. For this, Lin began to work for him. He was involved in forging passports.
There was a lot of stuff.
Lin's relationship with Carla has reached a dead end.
Abdullah was accused of being a maniac named Sapna, who terrorized the population with terrible murders and dismemberment, and was shot dead during his arrest.
But what finished off Lin was that Prabaker died. Lin gave him a taxi driving license for his wedding, and he got into an accident in this taxi. Lin remembered how he tamed a mouse in prison, and then it was killed by another prisoner. If he had not tamed it, the mouse would have remained alive; if he had not bought a license, Prabaker would have remained alive. That is, he was still nothing more than a mouse.
Because of all this, Lin started injecting himself with heroin again.
Kader saved him from a heroin binge. This time he invited him to go with him to Afghanistan. He needed a white man to pass off as an American. Lean is Australian, but the Pakistanis and Afghans wouldn't understand that.
The campaign in Afghanistan was very difficult, but, most importantly, there Lin learned that Kader had been deceiving him all the time. Carla worked for him: she supplied him with whites who could be used in mafia affairs. Kader decided from the very beginning to make him “his American.” Sapna was invented by Karla and Kader - they wanted the police to focus on the maniac and get behind the mafia. The role of Sapna was not played by Abdullah, but by another person. Lin could have been released from prison in a day, but they did not want to quarrel with Madame Zhu for the time being. Medicines for the first-aid post were given to test their suitability: medicines obtained by lepers were also taken to Afghanistan.
Having laid out all this incriminating evidence about himself, Kader died safely in battle.
At the end of the novel, Abdullah reappears (he did not die, it turns out) and the hero gathers with him to go to war in Sri Lanka. It is clear that there was a move towards the second book. It seems that it was written, but something didn’t come across to me.
Shantaram is an interesting read. Sometimes you really feel like you are in India. Although, as you read about the terrible heat, when you can’t breathe, and sweat flows all the time through your body, or about the rainy season, or about how at night rats run in a continuous stream from the markets to their holes, and you need to wait out this stream in the corner, or about an attack by a pack of stray dogs, then you don’t want to visit this country at all.
What I didn't like the most was the main character. He really likes himself, he shows off very well. Either he worries about his dead friend, or he is ashamed that he robbed people, but he always finds an excuse for himself.
Lin is the type of person we call a “clean guy”: the guy said it, the guy did it. Lives according to concepts. If you helped someone, then he will help him, and vice versa. He doesn't judge anyone. Here's one of his pimp friends: so what? Wonderful person. The rest of his friends are murderers, thieves, scammers. He himself quietly sells drugs. But at the same time he talks a lot about love.
I don't trust such people. Therefore, in the novel “Shantaram” (this means “peaceful person” - this is the name given to Lin in the village) there is some kind of falsehood, although the author is a good storyteller.
At the end of 2015, the film “Shantaram” (starring Johnny Depp) will be released - then the fame of Gregory Roberts will rise to unprecedented heights.
To the top thematic table of contents
Thematic table of contents (Reviews and criticism: literature)
Shantaram- an adventure and philosophical novel by Australian writer Gregory David Roberts.
History of creation
The author began work on the book in prison, where the drafts were burned twice by prison guards. This is a biographical novel that tells the story of the life and rebirth of an Australian robber, Gregory David Roberts. Having found himself in another culture, Bombay (India), the hero experiences many different events, thanks to which he becomes a different person.
The action in the novel takes place in the 80s.
The main character of the book is Lin (Linbaba) - a former robber and drug addict who escaped from an Australian prison, where he had to serve 19 years. Using a false passport, he comes to Bombay, where he settles, makes friends and starts working.
His friend, also a slum dweller, Prabaker takes Lin to his home. There his mother gives him the name Shantaram - “peaceful man”. The hero learns the Marathi language - one of the Indo-Aryan languages, which adds weight to him in Indian society, makes him “one of our own” and allows him to settle down in Indian society.
He takes his first Indian school of life in the slums - an illegal settlement of 25 thousand Indians who literally have to survive. Their slums are under constant threat of demolition, they are sick and suffer from poverty, but they love and care for each other, and problems are solved with the help of elected “leaders” using fair methods, because you cannot expect help from the Bombay police, only trouble. Lin uses first aid skills and treats slum dwellers.
Lin falls in love with a Swiss woman, Carla, who lives in Bombay and conducts mediation business. Her relationship with Lin is very uncertain. She gives him hope, but is constantly elusive.
Following a denunciation, Lin ends up in a Bombay prison, where he spends three months in terrible conditions and barely survives. Having learned that the Australian police are looking for him, the head of the prison releases Lin for 10 thousand dollars, which is given by local mafioso Abdel Kader Khan. This is an amazingly wise man who cares about his charges and has great influence in criminal circles. After prison, Lin begins working for him, dealing with smuggling, false passports, illegal currency transactions and transactions with precious metals. After the death of two of her best friends, Lindsay ends up in a drug den, where she spends three months on heroin. Abdel Kader Khan pulls him out of the stash and helps him overcome his drug addiction. Then both of them, as well as their comrades, travel to Afghanistan to help the Mujahideen fighting against the USSR.
In Afghanistan, Kader Khan dies, and Lin returns to Bombay. .
What is this book about?
“Shantaram” is a very wise book about life, love, retribution, and finding your path in life. It is very dynamic - thanks to the constantly changing events in the hero's life, and very philosophical - because the hero begins to think about every event, every problem.
Shantaram is a book full of suffering - take for example the life of people in the slums and their constant struggle for survival, the life of Bombay people in general with the dangers on the roads and in the back alleys. We see how the main character suffers in prison, trying to maintain fortitude, not to let himself be broken, and to protect those around him. We also see many examples of suffering due to love.
At the same time, this is an amazingly kind book, full of compassion and love for one’s neighbor. The reader is fascinated by the story of how a former prisoner and robber becomes a self-taught doctor and works around the clock in the slums, saving the lives and health of the poor who cannot see doctors because of their illegal status. He also teaches children English and takes part in saving slums from disasters - the monthly demolition of fifty slums by the authorities for their illegal status, fires, and floods.
A former robber is spiritually reborn - he understands what led him to the criminal path. He comes to realize the suffering he has brought to people and how much he is to blame.
Who would be interested in the book "Shantaram"
The novel “Shantaram” will be of interest to everyone who...
- seeks the meaning of life and the events that happen to him;
- loves good stories and lively humor;
- interested in Indian culture, Eastern mentality;
- interested in religious studies.
Links
- How an escaped Australian convict changed me, a 50-year-old glutton, social network Diets.ru
