The White Tiger

Balram Halwai comes from a village on the Ganges, in the part of India he calls the Darkness, where the poor are meant to stay poor; his father pulls a rickshaw. Taken out of school, he crushes coal and wipes tables in a teashop, listening to the customers talk, until he wins a job as driver to the son of a village landlord. Soon he is at the wheel in Delhi, serving Ashok and his wife Pinky among slums, shopping malls, call centres, traffic jams and the bribes that keep business moving. In letters to the Chinese premier, who is about to visit India, Balram, servile and sarcastic by turns, explains how a man born into the coop might break out of it, and what that will cost.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Satire, Crime (assigned by AI)

Set in

India, 2000s

First published

2008

Author's age

34 when first published

ISBN

9781843547204 (Atlantic Books, United Kingdom)

9781416562597 (Free Press, United States)

9781848878082 (Atlantic Books, United Kingdom)

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