The white tiger

WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2008WINNER OF THE GALAXY BRITISH BOOK AWARDS 'AUTHOR OF THE YEAR' 2009'[An] extraordinary and brilliant first novel...

Adiga is a real writer - that is to say, someone who forges an original voice and vision.' Sunday TimesMeet Balram Halwai, the 'White Tiger': servant, philosopher, entrepreneur, murderer.

Balram was born in a backwater village on the River Ganges, the son of a rickshaw-puller.

He works in a teashop, crushing coal and wiping tables, but nurses a dream of escape.

When he learns that a rich village landlord needs a chauffeur, he takes his opportunity, and is soon on his way to Delhi at the wheel of a Honda.

Amid today's India's cockroaches and call-centres, its 36,000,004 gods, slums, shopping malls, and crippling traffic jams, Balram learns of a new morality at the heart of a new India.

Driven by desire to better himself, he comes to see how the Tiger might escape his cage ... through murder.