The White Tiger: A Novel

"He can read and write but he doesn't understand what he has read. He's half-baked. The country is full of people like him, and we entrust our glorious parliamentary democracy to characters like these. That's the tragedy of this country"."But pay attention: fully formed fellows after twelve years of school and four years of university wear nice suits, they join companies and take orders from other men for the rest of their lives. Entrepreneurs are made from half-baked clay.""We worship him in our temples because he is the shining example of how to serve your master with absolute fidelity, love and devotion. These are the gods they have foisted on us. Understand how hard it is for a man to win his freedom.""You, young man, are an intelligent, honest and vivacious fellow in this crowd of idiots and thugs. In any jungle what is the rarest of animals ... the creature that comes along once in a generation? I thought about it and said: the white tiger."************White Tiger begins with an entrepreneur writing a letter to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who is planning a state visit to Bangalore, and tells his life story. Balram grew up so poor he didn't have a name or birthday; his mother was sick and his father too busy as a Bihar rickshaw puller to make a record. After a few years of education he was pulled from school to pay off his sister's dowry by working in a tea shop. Thugs extort money from villagers, hospitals bribe politicians and cheat patients. He rejects religion for making people servile. Balram moves to a nearby city, learning to drive a limousine.Ringing bells at rich people's gates, Balram gets a job as a chauffeur and servant for one of the landlords of his home town. The landlord's son Ashok has just returned from New York with his pretty new wife, Pinky Madam. Balram keeps his ears open, learning his employer and coworker's secrets. He becomes the number one driver over rival employees. The boss is in with corrupt politicians who steal elections and sell public resources for personal gain. A huge kickback is demanded by the Great Socialist. Ashok, Pinky and Balram head for New Delhi to fix the problem, bribing a minister.Delhi is a vast city of crazily numbered streets and endless roundabouts, of extreme air pollution and income disparity. Drivers and servants live in horrible conditions but better than those on the streets. Balram begins to hate the squalor and aspires to the life of his masters. Pinky causes a tragic accident and leaves for New York; Ashok is left alone with Balram. In addition to his driving, Balram cooks, cleans and washes Ashok's feet. He begins to cheat the boss by selling gas, side rides and inflating repairs. In the jungle Maoists smuggle Chinese bombs, waiting to overthrow their masters.When Balram's grandmother arranges a marriage to get his dowry something snaps. He had been sending all his money home but stopped months earlier. Ashok's family made him sign a confession for a crime he didn't commit, wanting him to serve jail time for someone else. Servants were expected to accept abuse without complaint, relatives punished for a servant's transgressions. His nephew arrives unexpectedly from the village with instructions for Balram to look after him. When Ashok makes plans to replace him he takes a terrible revenge, becoming a businessman in Bangalore.Aravind Adiga won the Booker Prize in 2008 for White Tiger, his first novel, which went on to become an Academy Award nominated film. He grew up in a family of doctors, bankers and politicians, not the background of the narrator, but his voice is authentic. Adiga's writing is iconoclastic and must have offended some readers. His critique of conditions of poverty and ignorance, rise of capitalism and corruption is both satirical and sympathetic. As a debut by a young author it is impressive. Although Adiga is comic and entertaining throughout he embeds serious social insights into his story.

In Luxemburg, India, otherwise known as the “darkness” a man is raised into a life of poverty as in the caste of “sweet makers”. He uses all of the knowledge he acquired over the years to rise above his caste and becomes a driver for a wealthy landlord’s son and moves to the big city of Delhi. If you enjoy mystery, adventure and historical fiction, then I would highly recommend this book. It will grip you from the moment you start reading as Balram Halwai takes you on his life journey of despair, hope, wealth and eventual self destruction. The book is set just before modern day times after Ghandi is elected and is trying to help eliminate the horrible living conditions of the people in lower classes or castes. The pages start turning faster as you go deeper into Balrams story. His heartbreaking description of his father’s life and death as a rickshaw puller keeps the reader interested in continuing. This book grips you with mystery, secrets, and misery. One example of mystery is how the wealthy landlords earn money taking large sums of money from multiple banks on a daily basis leaving the reader wondering who, what, where and why. Mr. Ashok never discloses what he does for a living. Balram starts collecting secrets from the moment he becomes acquainted with the Ashok family. His never misses a conversation or forgets an event. His working relationship started off as a lie stating that he was not a drinker or interested in women or money. He also lied about his driving experience. Misery is described throughout the entire novel. Balrams living conditions with hundreds upon hundreds of cockroaches and mosquitoes left the reader gagging. He could hear the roaches gnawing away at the baseboards every night while he slept under a net. He lived on mouse like portions of food and tiny sums of rupees and went hungry most days trying to satisfy his hunger chewing paan. The endless hours of waiting for his master at the mall with his wife or girlfriend is painful to read. The stories from the other drivers of horrible living conditions, murder, betrayal, and death were the only things to lead him away from complete boredom. The magazine Murder Weekly was the only form of entertainment as the drivers passed it around. The camaraderie among the drivers was the only sense of joy the reader will experience. They shared, they experimented and they would always try to help one another and they had each other’s back. They were always hoping that one of their “brothers” would make something of themselves someday. If you would like to learn more about the economic conditions in India including the exploitation of the labor force by foreign corporations, then this book will satisfy your curiosity. The American corporations moving in and setting up call centers will shock you. The extreme gap between the poor and the wealthy people of India and their strange caste system makes this book a very entertaining read.

Libro totalmente nuevo, en excelente estado, llego 1 día antes de lo marcado

Writer has comprehend the purpose of the indian mindset. and detail of everything is so great and I just love it.

je l'avais lu en français à sa sortie, je le rachète en anglais lors d'1 nouvelle visite de l'Inde.roman très bien écrit, et surtout véritable "documentaire sur la société actuelle". très bon descriptif de la société indienne coupée en 2: les villes, à l'heure de la mondialisation et les zones rurales " the Darkness" toujours à l'heure des castes, et de la société traditionnelleSi vous voyagez en Inde et ne comprenez pas tout de la société, ce livre va vous éclairer sérieusement

So well written! The antihero makes us identify with him and his actions and goes so far as to make us wonder that maybe we would do the same in similar conditions.

.. one of a kind is born. And as a real tiger or a human being he (or she...) will be the most extraordinary example of his or her kind.Here we follow the development of a poor 'half-baked' Indian boy named simply Gunna - Boy. Because no-one in his family had the time to give him a real name. His teacher finally names him. But he has changed now again, leaving the old name behind like a snake leaves its skin. Now he has become an entrepreneur - and his story is masterly told by Aravind Adiga. Who rightfully won the Man Booker Prize in 2008.And what a story it is! It will be given to us in form of letters our now adult protagonist is writing night after night to the Premier of China, in Beijing - by him called 'The Capital of the Freedom-Loving Nation of China'. From a extraordinary talented scholar in his village to an almost-slave in a tea-shop. Then to the high-rises of Delhi as a junior driver for a very rich, but also very malleable millionaire. And the whole family - with the roots in the same village our boy came from, plus one American spouse - see in him only a beast of burden. Only his Master has some limited form of human feelings for him. The boy sleeps in the basement with roaches and dreams the impossible dream. Contacts with other drivers in similar situations will teach him to find a way out of this one-way street. The Money his salary - which once rolled right into the hands of his odious grandmother in the dirty hometown - now he keeps it for his way out. But the corruption that surrounds him day by day will corrupt him too, and very soon. Now the question is: Will he really be able to commit murder to realize his dreams of a free - and before all - totally independent life? The answer comes very soon in the letters he writes from his new office, adorned with a lot of crystal chandeliers. He is an 'entrepreneur' now - and Jo's start-ups are very successful. He plans for the future, too. But he has lost almost all humanity. So he has finally become a real 'White Tiger' - merciless feeding on everything and everyone, and be sure to be the first on the meal.A very accurate picture of the India when Bangalore came up as the Silicon Valley of India. Our hero has found the right place to enlarge his activities into the sector of real-estate. Where there will be people they need places.I only wish that this very talented author writes a book like "10 Years Later" - to see if that White Tiger had survived the modern jungle of hyper-modern India...Have to read 2 books of Aravind Adiga, "Last Man in Tower" and "Between the Assassinations". Both are a clear mirror of the Indian Society and touch the themes of corruption and Hindus vs Muslims. I will review those books, too.But this one is a clear 5**** star, a wonderful example how a citizen is more than able to judge his 'Mother India' and the moral corruption without annoying an interested reader like me.Reccomended for those with an open mind, especially for foreign cultures and upcoming industrial giants.