SHANTARAM Paperback – 24 March 2005

Till now I had read books, but as far as Shantaram is considered, I lived through this book, with a flavor of amchi mumbai. You name a genre, this book has got that. Crime, love, betrayal, sacrifice, friendship, philosophy, spirituality, war, relationship, any category, you name it, this book superscribes that section. The plot and characters are so vivacious that you will start living with them from the inception of this story. The best part is that it's not an amalgamation of borrowed concepts from hundreds of scripts, rather genuinely and heart touchingly pristine. You feel like achieving a goal once you will be done with this book, at the same time you will feel like escaping from your loved ones when the story comes to an ending. A great involvement with the characters and a must to read piece of work.

Someone said it's Literary masterpiece. Don't believe it. It's a good read. Period. Like all thick tomes, parts of it very boring. Some good authors would have taken just 2/3 rd of this size of the book to spin such a story. I love Mumbai and was the reason why I picked this book up. Mumbai is a character by itself in the book. The underbelly of it. Leopold cafe is the centrepiece of action in the book. I visited this place after the terrorist attack in 2008.It bears the marks if the attack. Good book. Also slightly overrated.

It has been a while since i bought this book. It also took me long hours to complete reading this. If you ask me what this book is about i would have to say everything. If you wanna know about many little things in our life go through this one. And it being an amazing thriller is another plus point

What is not to love about this book?! It is one of my all time favourites and although a huge one, it will still leave you yearning for more. The writing, the imagery, and the narration are all superb and paint graphic images in your mind. I predict a TV series based on it coming soon, but nothing will ever beat the book. a MUST READ

I might have not purchased Shantaram if i could have read it's reviews on good reads. But anyway, this is the best book i can say. The story is slow gripping over kind off. At the starting of few chapters, you may not find it interesting because it's very usual & common stuff that all foreigners would want to see in India especially Mumbai or Bombay when they come to, But believe me... as soon as you keep reading it ahead, it will glued you for sure. Many times while reading you will feel bore, especially when Lin communicates with Lord Abdel Khader Khan & his philosophy. Don't dare to compare the whole book with reality because there few chapters which will make you to this, if this is really a GD Robert's real life story? I can say there few scenes which are based on reality but not all. Over all I found this book very interesting. Nice story...

I am not a big fiction fan and mostly read non-fiction. But since many years I was eager to read this particular book, don't know why. And boy I was not disappointed. I have copies of 1984 and Brave New World lying idle on my shelf from a long time but I don't see myself reading them anytime soon. Anyway coming back to GDR, it is a semi-biographical account of GDR mostly in India and in Afghanistan. I enjoyed reading the book till GDR reaches Afghanistan where the author stretches the book too much and this is where I gave up. In my defense, I had a conversation with one of my friends and he also could not finish the book after the Afghan war.PS : Watch the interview of GDR on youtube where he talks about his role as a side actor in bollywood!!

What a story.. what a way telling it.. it’s gripping from page one especially if one has stayed in mumbai.. unputdounable… recommend to all.. this fellow “ Shantaram” is a literary giant

A good read but too long !!!! Should have ended 200 pages sooner ! Different and engrossing however sometimes totally confusing and doesn’t make sense !