Someone's favorite book.

1. My favourite book is:
Shantaram
By Gregory David Roberts

2. Setting
(the underlined vocabulary is useful for describing your favourite book, or
highlights more unusual words)
 The book is set in 1978 and is based on real events that took place in
the writer’s life. It begins in Australia as the protagonist Lin (Gregory
David Roberts) escapes a maximum security prison.
 However the majority of the book takes place in Bombay (today’s
Mumbai), India.
 The novel gives an honest insight of daily life in Bombay from a local
perspective, as the protagonist spends time living in a slum and forms
lifelong friendships with some of the local people. In this way, the
reader learns a great deal about authentic Indian culture.
 It also demonstrates how cosmopolitan the city was at that time, as the
protagonist befriends many other foreigners and falls in love with a
Swiss-American woman named Karla.

3. Plot Overview
 As soon as Lin arrives in Bombay he meets a local man named Prabaker and hires
him as a guide.
 They quickly become friends and they visit Prabaker's native village, Sunder.
Prabaker’s mother decides to give Lin a new Maharashtrian name because she
judged his nature to be blessed with peace and happiness, so she calls him
Shantaram, meaning Man of God's Peace.
 On their way back to Bombay, Lin and Prabaker are robbed. With all of his
possessions gone, Lin is forced to live in the slums, which shelters him from the
authorities. After a massive fire on the day of his arrival in the slum, he sets up a free
health clinic as a way to contribute to the community. He learns about the local
culture and customs in this crammed environment, gets to know and love the people
he encounters, and even becomes fluent in Marathi, the local language.
 He also witnesses and battles outbreaks of cholera and firestorms, becomes involved
in trading with the lepers, and experiences how ethnic and marital conflicts are
resolved in this densely crowded and diverse community.

4.  He also lands himself roles as an extra in several Bollywood movies, and is recruited by
the Bombay underworld for various criminal operations, including drug and weapons
trade.
 Lin eventually ends up in Bombay's Arthur Road Prison. There, along with hundreds of
other inmates, he endures brutal physical and mental abuse from the guards, while
existing under extremely squalid conditions.

5.  However, thanks to the protection of the Afghan mafia don "Abdel Khader
Khan", Lin is eventually released, and begins to work in a black market
currency exchange and passport forgery. Having travelled as far as Africa
on trips commissioned by the mafia, Lin later goes to Afghanistan to
smuggle weapons for mujahideen freedom fighters. When his mentor Khan
is killed, Lin realizes he has become everything he grew to loathe and falls
into depression after he returns to India.
 He decides that he must fight for what he believes is right, and build an
honest life.
 The story ends with him planning to go to Sri Lanka, which lays the
premise for the sequel to the book.

6. My personal opinion
 I loved reading this book because it was gripping and unpredictable. I was
surprised that the protagonist was able to survive everything he endured, whilst
being the most wanted man in Australia and being caught up in so many different
kinds of conflict in Bombay.
 It was also really well written, the characters were fully developed and the
descriptions were creative and interesting.
 Gregory David Roberts comments on his book: "With respect, Shantaram is not an
autobiography, it’s a novel. If the book reads like an autobiography, I take that as a
very high compliment, because I structured the created narrative to read like fiction
but feel like fact. I wanted the novel to have the page-turning drive of a work of
fiction but to be informed by such a powerful stream of real experience that it had
the authentic feel of fact.“
 I like that he mixed his personal experiences with fiction, that he invented
characters by taking elements of different people he met on his journey and turned
them into characters in the novel. I was completely absorbed by the story and
believed everything to be real whilst I was reading it. I really recommend it!!!!

7. Roberts talks about his real experience in
the slums:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGL5eTU5DXA