Shantaram

ur, and the amazing Indian way of living.

“Indians are the Italians of Asia and vice versa. Every man in both countries is a singer when he is happy, and every woman is a dancer when she walks to the shop at the corner. For them, food is the music inside the body and music is the food inside the heart. Amore or Pyar makes every man a poet, a princess of peasant girl if only for second eyes of man and woman meets.”

And the characters ... were so awesome!
My favourite was Prabaker, always full of optimism, goodness and life, always there for everyone, the total embodiment of goodness who would always protected an acquaintance as if he was part of his family while living in hard slum conditions.

“I’d grown to like Prabaker. I’d learned to admire his unshakeable optimism. I’d come to depend on the comforting warmth his great smile provided”.
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When it's not going a little too deep into the author's personal brand of spiritual philosophy, it's utterly fantastic. These are very personal themes to Roberts, all coming from a very personal locale. He writes about the things he cares about beautifully. He writes about the things he truly loves briefly, and all the more tragically. Love is clearly an emotion that elates and pains Roberts, because he's seen the ups and downs of it in ways I can't possible compare from my own experience. This book is a daunting task, but it is very, very good.

What to read after Shantaram?
You can find similar books in the "Read Also" column, or choose other free books by Gregory David Roberts to read online