WHITE TIGER

WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2008Balram Halwai is the White  Tiger – the smartest boy in his village. His  family is too poor for him  to afford for him to finish school and he has  to work in a teashop,  breaking coals and wiping tables. But Balram gets  his break when a rich  man hires him as a chauffeur, and takes him to  live in Delhi. The city  is a revelation. As he drives his master to  shopping malls and call  centres, Balram becomes increasingly aware of  immense wealth and  opportunity all around him, while knowing that he  will never be  able to gain access to that world. As Balram broods over  his situation,  he realizes that there is only one way he can become part  of this  glamorous new India – by murdering his master. The White Tiger presents

a raw and unromanticised India, both thrilling and shocking – from the

desperate, almost lawless villages along the Ganges, to the booming  Wild  South of Bangalore and its technology and outsourcing centres. The

first-person confession of a murderer, The White Tiger is as compelling for its subject matter as for the voice of its narrator – amoral, cynical, unrepentant, yet deeply endearing.