The author of Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts was born in Melbourne, Australia. Sentenced to nineteen years in prison for a series of armed robberies, he escaped and spent ten of his fugitive years in Bombay - where he established a free medical clinic for slum-dwellers, and worked as a counterfeiter, smuggler, gunrunner, and street soldier for a branch of the Bombay mafia. Recaptured, he served out his sentence, and established a successful multimedia company upon his release. Roberts is now a full-time writer and lives in Bombay. (from the book's jacket)
The Washington Post writes of his 2003 novel, Shantaram - "A sprawling, intelligent novel . . . full of vibrant characters . . . but Bombay itself is Shantaram's strongest performance and Roberts' love of India and the people who live there is unmistakable and a joy to read about . . . Roberts brings us through Bombay's slums and opium houses, its prostitution dens, and ex-pat bars, saying, You come now. And we follow."
No comments:
Post a Comment