India. Bombay. A place I’ve never been, but felt like I have spent a lifetime. Gregory David Roberts’ “Shantaram” (ISBN 9780312330538) is such an exceptionally descriptive and beautifully lyrical novel that it transports the reader to a different time and place, and a different life. The scenes of the daily life and people of 1980’s India are so poetically and colorfully conceived, one can’t help but fall in love with the place.

“Shantaram”, which is Robert’s first novel, is autobiographical and mostly (if not entirely) based on Robert’s own life and adventures. The story begins when the freshly escaped convict, Lindsay (the name on Roberts’ counterfeit passport), arrives in Bombay after his heroic escape from a 20 year sentence at a maximum security prison in Australia. Promptly after his arrival, he is befriended by a local guide who agrees to show him around the city and gives him the nickname Lin. Lin soon finds out how easy it is to make money on the black market making deals with other foreigners. He quickly learns the languages Hindi, Marathi and Urdu, and finds himself invited to live in the slums with his guide and friend. When the slum dwellers find out that he has some medical skills from his heroin addiction days, they start lining up at his hut every morning to receive medical attention, which Lin is more than happy to administer for free. He achieves hero status with the locals and falls in love with the slum. After that, things take a drastic change and events in Lin’s life don’t transpire so smoothly.

Lin finds himself attracted to the life of crime that got him imprisoned in the first place and inadvertently joins the Bombay mafia. Lin’s wild and adventurous nature drives him to engage in a plethora of dangerous endeavors. From street fights to opium dens, counterfeiting and smuggling, working and acting for Bollywood films, fighting in a holy war and keeping company with an array of prostitutes, drug users, gang members, slum dwellers and black market workers, Lin leads us on one hell of an adventure. With all that Roberts has survived it is truly amazing that he is even alive to write his story at all.

“Shantaram” is such a thrilling story of freedom and friendship, cruelty and hope, love and loss that I found it almost impossible to put down. Ultimately, “Shantaram” is a story of redemption. The redemption of a man losing himself and everything he loves, creating a new life, only to lose it all again and find what truly is important in life. Despite its massive 936 page size, I cherished every second of it. To make the story even more intriguing, we find that “Shantaram” was written in prison after Roberts’ final recapture to serve out his original sentence. The first two drafts of the novel were destroyed in prison, so Roberts really wrote “Shantaram” three times!

Vividly descriptive and elegantly formed, “Shantaram” is a truly epic story that I feel like I lived out myself. Roberts’ life is filled with so much excitement that this book is sure to make your own life seem boring and mundane. Utterly heartbreaking and courageous, every chapter ends on such a splendid note, that I found myself rereading the last few paragraphs of each one, absorbing each word of wisdom This is a novel that is so rich, textured and unforgettable that it has definitely found itself onto my list of all time favorites. Anyone who loves a grand sprawling epic of a read, filled with truth and humor, love and betrayal, wisdom and adventure is assured to come out of this one touched, changed and completely satisfied.

Thanks for reading!

Matt

Here’s a link to Roberts’ website where he shares facts about his life and philosophy, shares pictures and keeps us updated on the status of the sequel to “Shantaram” and the (hopefully) soon to be movie. http://www.shantaram.com