[home] [news] [this year's award] [publishers] [libraries] [award archive] [faqs] [dublin city public libraries] [IMPAC] [contact us]

The 2010 Award

Adiga

The white tiger : a novel

The White Tiger

by Aravind Adiga

 

 

Nominated by:

  • Birmingham Libraries, England
  • Glasgow Libraries, Information & Learning, Scotland
  • Limerick City Libraries, Ireland
  • Biblioteca Pública Municipal do Porto, Portugal
  • Stedelijke Openbare Bibliotheek Gent, Belgium
  • Veria Central Public Library, Greece
  • M.I. Rudomino State Library for Foreign Literature, Moscow, Russia
  • New Hampshire State Library, Concord, USA
  • Edmonton Public Library, Canada

 

Publisher of Nominated Edition:


Atlantic Books, England

Free Press, USA

 
the complete A-Z listing of nominated authors
ABOUT THE BOOK

Meet Balram Halwai, the ‘White Tiger’: Indian servant, philosopher, entrepreneur, murderer…
Born in a remote Indian village, the son of a rickshaw-puller, Balram is taken out of school by his family and put to work in a teashop. As he smashes coals and wipes tables, he nurses a dream of escape, of breaking away from the banks of Mother Ganga into whose murky depths have seeped the remains of a hundred generations.
When a rich village landlord hires him as a chauffeur for his son and daughter-in-law, Balram’s re-education begins. Behind the wheel of a Honda, Balram comes to New Delhi. There he finds himself among cockroaches and traffic-jams, slums and shopping malls, 21st-century technology and medieval superstition. Trapped between his instinct to be a loyal son and servant, and his desire to better himself, and under the scrutiny of 36,000,005 gods, he discovers a new morality at the heart of the new India. Gradually Balram comes to see how the Tiger might escape his cage…
Balram’s journey from darkness to the light of success is a brilliantly irreverent, blackly comic, deeply endearing and altogether unforgettable tour de force.

(From Publisher).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Aravind Adiga was born in Madras in 1974 and was raised in Australia. He studied at Columbia and Oxford Universities. A former correspondent in India for Time magazine, his articles have also appeared in publications like the Financial Times, the Independent, and the Sunday Times. He lives in Mumbai. The White Tiger is his first novel.

LIBRARIANS' COMMENTS

This darkly comic debut novel comments on the social situation in India, new prosperity for some groups in society but for a large part of the population still corruption, poverty and inequality.

A penetrating piece of social commentary about the corruption and brutality accompanying India’s rise to a global power structure.

A refreshing insight into the world of an individual trying to better himself whilst battling with the consumerist society around him.

Very moving novel.

This is a thrilling, irreverent, unforgettable debut novel which tells the tale of two Indias through the story of Balram Halwai who was born into the “darkness” of village life in rural India but emerges into the “light” of entrepreneurial success in Delhi. With an utterly engaging plot, told with humour and sarcasm, the reader will not fail to be enthralled.

Brightly, ironical if not sarcastic, and somewhat shockingly expressive picture of the present day India through the eyes of its enfant terrible.

A favourite with Glasgow's book groups.

The White Tiger combines insightful social commentary, engaging story telling, surprising plot twists and a unique narrative voice to expose the grim costs of a morally bankrupt society.

 

[home] [news] [this year's award] [publishers] [libraries] [award archive] [dublin city public libraries] [IMPAC] [faqs] [contact us]

Copyright © 2010 Dublin City Public Libraries