The White Tiger

“In the grand illusions of a ‘rising’ India, Aravind Adiga has found a subject Gogol might have envied. With remorselessly and delightfully mordant wit, The White Tiger anatomises the fantastic cravings of the rich; it evokes, too, with starting accuracy and tenderness, the no less desperate struggles of the deprived.” — Pankaj Mishra

What makes an entrepreneur in today’s India? Bribes and murder, says this fiercely satirical first novel. Balram Halwai is a thriving young entrepreneur in Bangalore, India’s high-tech capital. China’s Premier is set to visit, and the novel’s frame is a series of Balram’s letters to the Premier, in which he tells his life story. Balram sees India as two countries: the Light and the Darkness.

Like the huddled masses, he was born in the Darkness, in a village where his father, a rickshaw puller, died of tuberculosis. But Balram is smart, as a school inspector notices, and he is given the moniker

White Tiger. Soon after, he’s pulled out of school to work in a teashop, and then manages to get hired

as a driver by the Stork, one of the village’s

powerful landlords.

Balram is on his way, to Delhi in fact, where the Stork’s son, Mr Ashok, lives with his Westernised wife, Pinky Madam. Ashok is a gentleman, a decent employer, though Balram will eventually cut his throat (an early revelation). His business (coal trading) involves bribing government officials with huge sums of money, the sight of which proves irresistible to Balram and seals Ashok’s fate.

The Book Thief

Nazi Germany, 1939 — The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier. Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family

on Himmel Street. Her parents

have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This

is her story and the story of the

inhabitants of her street when the bombs

begin to fall. Some important information —

this novel is narrated by death. It’s a small

story, about: a girl; an accordionist; some fanatical Germans; a Jewish fist fighter; and quite a lot

of thievery. Another thing you should know — death will visit the book thief three times.

The Girl with the Dragon...

A striking novel, full of passion, an evocative sense of place and subtle insights into venal, corrupt minds. — The Observer

Devil May Care

Faulks’ author credit on the book (‘Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming’) is both revealing and encouraging – the author has reportedly said that he undertook the task with total seriousness, and he has tried to work within the parameters of the Ian Fleming formula (Faulks re-read all the extant Bond novels and stories) rather than the more glossy film incarnation. Among several very canny moves by the author is his decision to keep his 007 in the 1960s rather than catapulting him into the 21st century as other ersatz Fleming novels — and, of course, the films — have done. So how successful are the results?

The Appeal

In a crowded courtroom in Mississippi, a jury returns a shocking verdict against a chemical company accused of dumping toxic waste into a small town’s water supply, causing the worst “cancer cluster” in history. The company appeals to the Mississippi Supreme Court, whose nine justices will one day either approve the verdict or reverse it. Who are the nine? How will they vote? Can one be replaced before the case is ultimately decided? The chemical company is owned by a Wall Street predator named Carl Trudeau, and Mr Trudeau is convinced the Court is not friendly enough. With judicial elections looming, he decides to try to purchase himself a seat on the Court. The cost is a few million dollars, a drop in the bucket for a billionaire like Mr Trudeau. Through an intricate web of conspiracy and deceit, his political operatives recruit a young, unsuspecting candidate. They finance him, manipulate him, market him, and mould him into a potential Supreme Court justice. Their Supreme Court justice. The Appeal is a powerful, timely, and shocking story of political and legal intrigue, a story that will leave readers unable to think about the electoral process or judicial system in quite the same way ever again.