The White Tiger
A Novel
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4.2 • 33 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE
The stunning Booker Prize–winning novel from the author of Amnesty and Selection Day that critics have likened to Richard Wright’s Native Son, The White Tiger follows a darkly comic Bangalore driver through the poverty and corruption of modern India’s caste society. “This is the authentic voice of the Third World, like you've never heard it before” (John Burdett, Bangkok 8).
The white tiger of this novel is Balram Halwai, a poor Indian villager whose great ambition leads him to the zenith of Indian business culture, the world of the Bangalore entrepreneur. On the occasion of the president of China’s impending trip to Bangalore, Balram writes a letter to him describing his transformation and his experience as driver and servant to a wealthy Indian family, which he thinks exemplifies the contradictions and complications of Indian society.
Recalling The Death of Vishnu and Bangkok 8 in ambition, scope, The White Tiger is narrative genius with a mischief and personality all its own. Amoral, irreverent, deeply endearing, and utterly contemporary, this novel is an international publishing sensation—and a startling, provocative debut.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Indian novelist Aravind Adiga exploded onto the international literary scene with this razor-sharp satire of what one man is willing to do to join the ranks of the wealthy elite. Born a rickshaw puller’s son in rural northwest India, Balram Halwai tells us how he rose through the social ranks from a destitute childhood spent working in a teahouse to chauffeuring a wealthy businessman to finally opening his own lucrative car service. The only catch is that along the way, he had to betray his family, abandon his dignity, learn the fine art of bribery, and literally commit murder. Adiga portrays Balram’s ambition and misdeeds in a darkly funny and sometimes shocking way. We also adored the flowing rhythms of Adiga’s prose. The White Tiger is a wildly entertaining story about the price of getting ahead.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A brutal view of India's class struggles is cunningly presented in Adiga's debut about a racist, homicidal chauffer. Balram Halwai is from the "Darkness," born where India's downtrodden and unlucky are destined to rot. Balram manages to escape his village and move to Delhi after being hired as a driver for a rich landlord. Telling his story in retrospect, the novel is a piecemeal correspondence from Balram to the premier of China, who is expected to visit India and whom Balram believes could learn a lesson or two about India's entrepreneurial underbelly. Adiga's existential and crude prose animates the battle between India's wealthy and poor as Balram suffers degrading treatment at the hands of his employers (or, more appropriately, masters). His personal fortunes and luck improve dramatically after he kills his boss and decamps for Bangalore. Balram is a clever and resourceful narrator with a witty and sarcastic edge that endears him to readers, even as he rails about corruption, allows himself to be defiled by his bosses, spews coarse invective and eventually profits from moral ambiguity and outright criminality. It's the perfect antidote to lyrical India.
