Shantaram is the sprawling, semi-autobiographical novel of an escaped Australian convict who arrives in 1980s Bombay, learns Hindi and Marathi, lives in a slum, opens a free health clinic, falls in love, joins the Bombay underworld, and eventually fights with the mujahideen in Afghanistan. Gregory David Roberts wrote much of it in prison after his recapture. The book is divisive: a cult favorite for many travelers and an overwritten epic for many critics.
What Works
The sense of place is extraordinary. Bombay in the 1980s feels alive on the page in a way few novels achieve.
What May Not Work
The narrator is heroic in ways that strain credibility, and the philosophical asides slow the book repeatedly.