At long last I can tell you about the epic book I’ve been reading since spring break using my crumpled boarding pass to Miami as a bookmark.
I read this work of art slowly because every page needed to be savored and understood. There were so many characters and so much to digest from the busy streets of Bombay where an Australian fugitive settles.
I read several other books in the meantime because I practice multibooking.
This book, now a favorite, is:
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
You may love this book too if you:
- Enjoy books about India. Although this book very different from A Fine Balance I found myself thinking back to how much I loved that book.
- Like stories that span settings and paint a full picture of a place – this one moves from the Indian slums to Afghanistan making stops at a prison, a smaller Indian village, and all over Bombay. You learn the inner workings of the Bombay slum and the Bombay mafia.
- Can accept not remembering every character or detail. Maybe some readers can keep track of everything going on here but I couldn’t. So many characters are involved it was impossible for me to remember everything about everyone.
- Feel the need to savor and possibly mark passages that speak to you (you’ll be doing that a lot).
- Love a book that tackles major themes about life. There are ugly and violent parts of the book but ultimately it is about good things – redemption and the connections we make in our lives.
“Fear dries a man’s mouth, and hate strangles him. That’s why hate has no great literature: real fear and real hate have no words.”
from shantaram
I also loved that:
- A bar, Leopold’s was a main gathering spot because I have a history of studying pubs in literature.
- It is based on a true story – the author was a man on the run, hiding in Bombay.
I recommend buying your own copy (maybe fine a used copy!) because this book will take so long to read. I also recommend reading it while reading other books at the same time. My post on multibooking. There were times it was slow for me but I always knew I would finish it and it was worth the time commitment.
Thank you to my friend Eric who recommended this book! He didn’t mention it was 936 pages so I’m saving that detail for the end of this post!
“The truth is that, no matter what kind of game you find yourself in, no matter how good or bad, you can change your life completely with a single thought or a single act of love.”
from shantaram