The White Tiger: A Novel
Books / Paperback
Books › Fiction › Epistolary
ISBN: 1416562605 / Publisher: Free Press, October 2008
When he relocates to New Delhi to take a new job, Balram Halwai is disillusioned by the city's materialism and technology-spawned violence, a circumstance that forces him to question his loyalties, ambitions, and past.
Read More
The stunning Booker Prize&;winning novel from the author of Amnesty and Selection Day that critics have likened to Richard Wright&;s Native Son, The White Tiger follows a darkly comic Bangalore driver through the poverty and corruption of modern India&;s caste society. &;This is the authentic voice of the Third World, like you've never heard it before&; (John Burdett, Bangkok 8).The white tiger of this novel is Balram Halwai, a poor Indian villager whose great ambition leads him to the zenith of Indian business culture, the world of the Bangalore entrepreneur. On the occasion of the president of China&;s impending trip to Bangalore, Balram writes a letter to him describing his transformation and his experience as driver and servant to a wealthy Indian family, which he thinks exemplifies the contradictions and complications of Indian society. Recalling The Death of Vishnu and Bangkok 8 in ambition, scope, The White Tiger is narrative genius with a mischief and personality all its own. Amoral, irreverent, deeply endearing, and utterly contemporary, this novel is an international publishing sensation&;and a startling, provocative debut.
Read Less