The White Tiger is 33-year-old Adiga’s first book, and one judge praised it as “the perfect novel.”
Plot summary from BBC: “…a tale of two Indias…the story of Balram, the son of a rickshaw puller in the heartlands, one of the ‘faceless’ poor left behind by the country’s recent economic boom. It charts his journey from working in a teashop to entrepreneurial success.”
You can read a sample chapter here and an interview with the author on the Booker Prize website.
Congratulations to Aravind Adiga, and to the shortlisted runner-ups: Sebastian Barry (The Secret Scripture), Amitav Ghosh (Sea of Poppies), Linda Grant (The Clothes on Their Backs), Philip Hensher (The Northern Clemency), and Steve Toltz (A Fraction of the Whole). Toltz was also contending with a debut.
