The White Tiger

Balram Halwai is a servant, a philosopher, an entrepreneur and a murderer, and he tells his own story over seven nights, by the light of an absurd chandelier. His subject is how a man with nothing but his own wits came to be a success.

Born in the poorest part of rural India, Balram gets his first break when the wealthiest man in his village hires him as a driver. His employers include the rich man's son and two house Pomeranians, Puddles and Cuddles. From the wheel of a Honda City, he sees a world he has never known.

His village peers read crime magazines, drink cheap liquor and accept their place in what Balram calls the Great Rooster Coop of Indian society. His employers drink single malt, bribe government ministers for tax breaks and are caught in the same coop. Balram learns to siphon petrol, deal with crooked mechanics and resell refilled whisky bottles. He also spots a way out that nobody else inside the coop can see.

The narration is a first-person confession, darkly funny, irreverent and morally slippery. Balram looks at India from the call centers to the cockroaches, the temples to the brothels, and the book reads as a sharp, fast-talking satire with a killer at its center.