Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts

Shantaram is the novel written by Gregory David Roberts, a convicted Australian bank robber and heroin addict who escaped from Pentridge Prison and fled to India where he lived for 10 years.

Plot summary

Shantaram is a novel based on real events in the life of the author, Australian Gregory David Roberts, interwoven with fictional adventures featuring Roberts in the lead role. In 1978, Roberts was sentenced to nineteen years’ imprisonment in Australia after being convicted for a series of armed robberies of building-society branches, credit unions, and shops he had committed to feed a heroin addiction. In July 1980, he escaped from Victoria’s Pentridge Prison

in broad daylight, thereby becoming one of Australia’s most wanted men for the next ten years. This part of Roberts' life is known fact.

In the fictional story, Roberts (under the fictional name Lindsey or Lin) arrives in Mumbai (Bombay) from New Zealand. Mumbai was only a stopover on a journey that was to take Lin to Germany, but he decides to stay in the city. Lin soon meets a local man named Prabaker, who becomes his best friend and renames him Linbaba. Both men visit Prabaker's native village, Sunder, where the locals christen Lin with the name Shantaram, meaning Man of Peace. On their way back to Mumbai and after a night out, Lin and Prabaker are robbed. With all his possessions gone, Lin is forced to live in the slums, giving him shelter from the authorities and free rent in Mumbai. He sets up a free health clinic in the slums 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 ethnical and marital conflicts are resolved in this densely crowded and diverse community.

The novel contains several other characters, notably a number of foreigners of varied origin and local Indians, highlighting the rich diversity of life in Mumbai. Lin falls in love with Karla, a Swiss-American girl, befriends local artists and actors landing him roles as an extra in several Bollywood movies, and is recruited by the Mumbai underworld for various criminal operations, including drug and weapons trade. This eventually lands him in Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail, where he endures severe beatings and other physical and mental abuse by guards, while existing under extremely squalid conditions, along with hundreds of other inmates. However, thanks to the protection of Afghani mafia don "Abdel Khader Khan", Lin is eventually released, and works in 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 in Afghanistan. When his mentor Khan is killed, Lin realizes he became everything he grew to loathe and falls into depression after he returns. 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 this book.