Product Description

Vikas Swarup's spectacular debut novel opens in a jail cell in Mumbai, India, where Ram Mohammad Thomas is being held after correctly answering all twelve questions on India's biggest quiz show, Who Will Win a Billion? It is hard to believe that a poor orphan who has never read a newspaper or gone to school could win such a contest. But through a series of exhilarating tales Ram explains to his lawyer how episodes in his life gave him the answer to each question.

Ram takes us on an amazing review of his own history -- from the day he was found as a baby in the clothes donation box of a Delhi church to his employment by a faded Bollywood star to his adventure with a security-crazed Australian army colonel to his career as an overly creative tour guide at the Taj Mahal.

Swarup's Q & A is a beguiling blend of high comedy, drama, and romance that reveals how we know what we know -- not just about trivia, but about life itself. Cutting across humanity in all its squalor and glory, Vikas Swarup presents a kaleidoscopic vision of the struggle between good and evil -- and what happens when one boy has no other choice in life but to survive.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #166258 in Books
• Published on: 2008-11-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781439136652
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Publishers Weekly
When Ram Mohammad Thomas, an orphaned, uneducated waiter from Mumbai, wins a billion rupees on a quiz show, he finds himself thrown in jail. (Unable to pay out the prize, the program's producers bribed local authorities to declare Ram a cheater.) Enter attractive lawyer Smita Shah, to get Ram out of prison and listen to him explain, via flashbacks, how he knew the answers to all the show's questions. Indian diplomat Swarup's fanciful debut is based on a sound premise: you learn a lot about the world by living in it (Ram has survived abandonment, child abuse, murder). And just as the quiz show format is meant to distill his life story (each question prompts a separate flashback), Ram's life seems intended to distill the predicament of India's underclass in general. Rushdie's Midnight's Children may have been a model: Ram's brash yet innocent voice recalls that of Saleem Sinai, Rushdie's narrator, and the sheer number of Ram's near-death adventures represents the life of the underprivileged in India, just as Saleem wore a map of India, quite literally, on his face. But Swarup's prose is sometimes flat and the story's picaresque form turns predictable. Ram is a likable fellow, but this q&a with him, though clever, grows wearying.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Swarup's inventive debut traces the fortunes of Ram Mohammad Thomas from "Asia's biggest slum" to his sudden acquisition of enormous wealth as the biggest winner on the popular quiz show, Who Will Win a Billion? A poor, uneducated waiter, Ram is arrested after the final episode in the belief that he must have cheated. In jail he shares his hardscrabble life with his lawyer: his abandonment at birth in a used clothing bin, the church orphanage where he was dubbed an "idiot orphan boy," the foster home where children were purposely crippled and forced to beg, the estate of an Australian diplomat who was really a spy, the home of an aging Bollywood actress, and his meager waiter job. Each chapter in Ram's life provided him with a correct answer on the show, as a la Forrest Gump, he has been in the right place at the right time. Ram's funny and poignant odyssey explores the causes of good and evil and illustrates how, with a little luck, the best man sometimes wins. Deborah Donovan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"Reader Kerry Shale captures every nuance and distinction of the many personalities involved." -- Boston Globe, September 18, 2005

Customer Reviews

Outstanding Picaresque Debut
Despite heartrending descriptions of sexual abuse, racism, poverty, homeless and much, much, more in modern India, this is an utterly enjoyable picaresque adventure that is one of the best reads of the year. In the hands of another author, the brief life story Ram Mohammad Thomas would probably be told as a simple tearjerker tragedy and the reader would be left to shake their head sorrowfully at the plight of another poor third-world soul. However, Swarup has a gimmick framework up his sleeve, and it works like a charm. Granted, one has to be willing to go along with the premise that this entire structure is based on coincidence of colossal proportions -- readers who aren't willing to suspend disbelief will probably not last more than a few chapters.

We first meet the 18-year-old protagonist in jail, where he sits accused of defrauding the popular TV game show "Who Wants to Be A Billionaire?" (in rupees). Despite being abandoned at birth, uneducated, and left to fend for himself for most of his life, it seems Ram somehow managed to answer the show's twelve questions correctly. To all outside observers, his social standing and lack of education appear to preclude this happening legitimately. However, just as the police are about to unleash some heavy manners on him, a mysterious lawyer intervenes and takes him away. The story then unfolds question by question, as Ram tells her via flashbacks to his life just how he managed to know each answer.

Ram's life story unfolds as a series of episodes ranging from the horrific to the merely tragicomic, and in a sense, one can view him as emblematic of India's lost children, and the book as caustic social commentary on contemporary India. Aside from being abandoned at birth, he must contend with a pedophile priest, a closeted homosexual movie star, a violent, drunken neighbor bent on incest, international espionage, child slavery, numerous thieves, a suicidal employer, and the deaths of several close friends. And yet, despite this bleak subject matter, the intrepid Ram keeps doggedly moving forward and surviving. This isn't done in a sentimental, "triumph of the human sprit", after-school special way, but in a straightforward manner that shows a confused young boy doing whatever it takes to live. And of course, the ultimate moral of the story is that those who keep their eyes and ears open in life can learn a lot about it without any books. An excellent story, well-told, and doubtless to be made into a film.

A clever plot that keeps your attention throughout
Ram Mohammad Thomas is a boy from the Indian slums who has entered a "Who wants to be a millionaire" style television quiz show. Despite his lack of formal education, his life experiences have perfectly equipped him to answer each question that comes up. Because the show's organizers are sure that he must have cheated, they ask him to explain how he was able to answer such difficult and obscure questions. Each chapter deals with another question and answer, and as the book progresses his very colorful life story is also gradually revealed.

This is not the most well written book I've read, but the way that the plot unfolds is very clever and keeps the reader's attention throughout. As each question is revealed, you can't help thinking "okay, now how is he going to integrate THIS into Ram's story?" and it's fun to see the way that he does, while also advancing the central plot. Slumdog Millionaire tears along at a quick pace: some parts are very amusing while others are very sad, but Swarup doesn't dwell on either. The way it all comes together at the end is highly contrived, but does make for a satisfactory conclusion.

If you enjoy books about India, there are other books that are more realistic or better written (I especially recommend the wonderful and highly moving novel "A Fine Balance"), but this is an easy and entertaining story that captures much of the essence of this fascinating country.

UPDATED 12/27: I have now seen the film Slumdog Millionaire. While the film has the taken the central theme and structure of the book, it also has many differences - for starters, the hero's name. Many plot elements of Ram/Dev's life story are entirely different in the film vs the book. Essentially the film is a very simplified version and hinges on the romance with Latika, which is not the case in the book. For me, the film works brilliantly, but it is not a slavish adaptation. This book is more "the book that inspired the film" rather than "the book of the film".

A Delightful Magical Romp and Still Poignant
There are a billion people in India, and one wins a billion rupees on "Who Will Win a Billion?", truly a one-in-a-billion shot. The one who wins is asked the only questions he could probably answer in the world, by a coincidence equivalent to his odds. From this timely and gripping premise, Vikas Swarup has crafted a wonderful novel, taking Ram Mohammed Thomas through his entire life in the way he explains how he, a poor 18-year old waiter, was able to answer each of the questions that led to his billion, and also to a stint in a Mumbai jail.

The book unfolds in the order of the questions Ram was asked on the quiz show, with his explanation of how he learned each answer forming the story. The most poignant part covers his period of time in Agra, where he works as a tourist guide at the Taj Mahal, befriends a boy who speaks nonsense, falls in love with a girl forced into prostitution and suddenly realizes that he must get on this quiz show to effect his life's destiny. I cried as that chapter ended.

Swarup is not a polished writer (he's a lawyer turned novelist) and he didn't experience many of the places or events of this book (he is well-educated and lives in England). But the book was clearly written with passion and compassion and a great deal of understanding and love for India and for his characters. His use of coincidence sometimes comes off as heavy-handed, until you realize that the entire story is about that one in a billion chance. Somewhere in heaven, Douglas Adams, inventor of the infinite improbability drive, is smiling reading this book.