The White Tiger

by Aravind Adiga (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2009

  $3.36

  Meet Balram Halwai, the 'White Tiger': servant, philosopher, entrepreneur and murderer. Balram, the White Tiger, was born in a backwater village on the River Ganges, the son of a rickshaw-puller. He works in a teashop, crushing coal and wiping tables, but nurses a dream of escape. When he learns that a rich village landlord needs a chauffeur, he takes his opportunity, and is soon on his way to Delhi behind the wheel of a Honda. Amid the cockroaches and call-centres, the 36,000,004 gods, the slums, the shopping malls, and the crippling traffic jams, Balram learns of a new morality at the heart of a new India. Driven by desire to better himself, he comes to see how the Tiger might escape his cage...

• Used

  Paperback
  2008

  $3.36

  'Unlike almost any other Indian novel you might have read in recent years, this page-turner offers a completely bald, angry, unadorned portrait of the country as seen from the bottom of the heap; there's not a sniff of saffron or a swirl of sari anywhere. The Indian tourist board won't be pleased, but you'll read it in a trice and find yourself gripped.' Andrew Holgate, Sunday Times Meet Balram Halwai, the 'White Tiger': servant, philosopher, entrepreneur, murderer. Born in a village in the dark heart of India, the son of a rickshaw puller, Balram is taken out of school by his family and put to work in a teashop. As he crushes coal and wipes tables, he nurses a dream of escape. His big chance comes when a rich village landlord hires him as a chauffeur for his son. Arriving in Delhi with his new master, Balram's re-education begins, as he learns of a new morality at the heart of a new India. As the other servants flick through the pages of Murder Weekly, Balram begins to see how the Tiger might escape his cage. For surely any successful man must spill a little blood on his way to the top? The White Tiger is a tale of two Indias. Balram's journey from the darkness of village life to the light of entrepreneurial success is utterly amoral, brilliantly irreverent, deeply endearing and altogether unforgettable. 'I'm very honoured to win the Man Booker Prize for The White Tiger. I'm grateful to my publishers, Atlantic Books - and also to all the reviewers, critics, and readers, especially in Australia, who have supported my book. I hope The White Tiger delights even more readers and also gets them thinking about the larger issues it raises.' - Aravind Adiga, Winner of the 2008 Man Booker Prize for Fiction