The keys to unlock the mysteries and intrigues that bind Lin are held by two people.

The search leads him to war, prison torture, murder, and a series of enigmatic and bloody betrayals.

As a hunted man without a home, family, or identity, Lin searches for love and meaning while running a clinic in one of the city's poorest slums, and serving his apprenticeship in the dark arts of the Bombay mafia. Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter the city's hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere. 'An escaped convict with a false passport, Lin flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of Bombay, where he can disappear. The book and jacket are in very good condition, some shelf rubbing.Text inside, apart from some writing on the page opposite the paste-down, appears clean and clear throughout. It is a compelling tale of a hunted man who had lost everything - his home, his family, and his soul - and came to find his humanity while living at the wildest edge of experience. It can be read as a vast, extended thriller, as well as a superbly written meditation on the nature of good and evil. His book is a blend of vivid dialogue, unforgettable characters, amazing adventures, and superb evocations of Indian life. Apart from having this highly unusual personal background, Greg Roberts is a very gifted writer. He set up a free health clinic in the slums, acted in Bollywood movies, worked for the Bombay mafia as a forger, counterfeiter, and smuggler and, as a gun-runner, resupplied a unit of mujaheddin guerrilla fighters in Afghanistan. For most of this period he lived in Bombay. In July 1980 he escaped from Victoria's maximum-security prison in broad daylight, thereby becoming one of Australia's most wanted men for what turned out to be the next ten years. In 1978 Roberts was sentenced to nineteen years' imprisonment as punishment for a series of robberies of building-society branches, credit unions, and shops he had committed while addicted to heroin. Shantaram is a novel based on the life of the author, Gregory David Roberts. A very good copy in very good dustjacket.

Shantaram hardcover