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    The White Tiger: A Novel
    The White Tiger: A Novel
    The White Tiger: A Novel
    Audiobook8 hours

    The White Tiger: A Novel

    Written by Aravind Adiga

    Narrated by John Lee

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    No saris. No scents. No spices. No music. No lyricism. No illusions.

    This is India now.

    Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life-having nothing but his own wits to help him along. Born in a village in the dark heart of India, Balram gets a break when he is hired as a driver for a wealthy man, two Pomeranians (Puddles and Cuddles), and the rich man's (very unlucky) son.

    Through Balram's eyes, we see India as we've never seen it before: the cockroaches and the call centers, the prostitutes and the worshippers, the water buffalo and, trapped in so many kinds of cages that escape is (almost) impossible, the white tiger. And with a charisma as undeniable as it is unexpected, he teaches us that religion doesn't create morality and money doesn't solve every problem-but decency can still be found in a corrupt world, and you can get what you want out of life if you eavesdrop on the right conversations.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMay 6, 2008
    ISBN9781400176656
    Author

    Aravind Adiga

    Aravind Adiga was born in 1974 in Madras (now Chennai) and grew up in Mangalore in the south of India. He was educated at Columbia University in New York and Magdalen College, Oxford. His articles have appeared in publications including the New Yorker, the Sunday Times, the Financial Times, and the Times of India. His first novel, The White Tiger, won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 2008. He is also the author of Last Man in Tower and Selection Day.

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    Reviews for The White Tiger

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    • 4/5
      From a small, poor village low cast Balram becomes a chauffer for a wealthy young man whose chief job it is to pay bribes so that the family's business can operate. Balram kills his boss (revealed at the very start of the book). Much dark, sarcastic humor. Moral ambiguity. Servant/master relationship.
    • 3/5
      Aravin Adiga is the fourth Indian author after the likes of Salman Rushdie, Kiran Desai and Arundhati Roy to receive a Booker Prize for his novel The White Tiger.The story of The White Tiger throws light on the divide between the rich and the poor in our country, the evils of our society and how one man breaks out of it by taking the wrong path. The story starts from a small village Laxamgarh in north India and takes us to Delhi and finally to Bangalore. The protagonist of the story, Balram lives in a village is taken out of school at an early age in spite of showing promise, is made to work at a tea shop in order to meet the dowry demands of an Aunt’s wedding. Where he often eavesdrops on the conversations of the customers and finally lands up with a driver’s job at the Zamindar’s house. And that’s where his journey begins. He learns from the situations he faces and by the many conversations of his masters who sat at the back seat of the car. Finally he succumbs to his desires and commits a crime from which he escapes and starts a new life in Bangalore where he becomes an entrepreneur. Aravind Adiga with his witty style of writing has painted a true picture of issues like bonded labour, dowry, victimization of the poor and the conservative Indian mindset. There are parts in the book which are hard to digest but over all it’s a good read.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed listening to this book.I liked the accent the narrator used.It was very interesting, yet sad to hear about the horrible poverty and corruption in India. It sad to see how their customs and beliefs make their lives so hard.
    • 5/5
      Hmmm, well, I happened to get this book from the library on the Saturday before the Booker Prize was announced “just in case.” When The White Tiger was revealed as the winner, I was really surprised. Not only did it have the longest odds to win, but I had recently read The Secret Scripture and not-so-secretly hoped it would win. In fact, the committee admitted these two were the main contenders and that the decision was not unanimous.To be honest, I kind of groaned when I heard Adiga’s book was the winner. I don’t have a love affair at all with the Booker prize winners that I’ve read, so I was a little skeptical that I would enjoy this one. But, being the trooper that I am, I thought I’d give it at least 40 or so pages to see if it could capture my interest.Surprise, surprise; it did. Not only is it a scathing indictment against India’s treatment of its poorest citizens, it also manages to be a clever black comedy. This is exactly what the prize committee chairman revealed as the reason behind its decision. So which book did I like better, The White Tiger or The Secret Scripture? It’s really comparing apples to oranges. They’re just not the same type of book at all. They both are worthy social commentaries on the authors’ home countries, but just written in a totally different style. While Sebastian Barry’s prose is lyrical, Adiga’s is biting (and comical). They both work spectacularly, just in different ways. I can definitely see why the committee had a difficult decision on its hands, and either one would have been a winner in my book.
    • 3/5
      Frightening book of a man's "rise" in India. It is also wry and disturbing and amoral and clever by turns. And I'm still not sure if I would recommend it or even read another book by this author. The fact that (spoiler alert) there are three killings in the story (2 vehicular, one premeditated murder) and the story deals with how the people responsible go about getting away with it...that just disturbs me. (I will say that the situation on India appears to be very dire.)
    • 4/5
      Laughed out loud a lot. But underneath it's a little bit unnerving. What has the world become?! Really easy to read and enjoyable.
    • 5/5
      A book that stays with you for ages. Great addition to C21 Asian/Indian collection; easily accessible to older teens.
    • 3/5
      See, this country, in its days of greatness, when it was the richest nation on earth, was like a zoo. A clean, well kept, orderly zoo. Everyone in his place, everyone happy. ... And then, thanks to all those politicians in Delhi, on the fifteenth of August, 1947 -- the day the British left -- the cages had been left open; and the animals had attacked and ripped each other apart and jungle law replaced zoo law. Those that were the most ferocious, the hungriest, had eaten everyone else up, and grown big bellies. (p. 53-54)Balram Halwai lives in "the jungle" that is 21st century India. The book is organized as a lengthy letter from Balram to China's Premier, shortly before the Premier's visit to Bangalore. In the letter, written over several days, Balram describes how he left his rural village to work as a driver for the son of the village's wealthiest man. He landed this position completely by luck, and used it to rise up in Indian servant society, and eventually become an entrepreneur. But this is no rags-to-riches story. It is instead a sometimes humorous, sometimes scathing account of contemporary Indian society. Adiga vividly describes the stark contrasts between "haves" and "have nots," and is resigned to this remaining as status quo for years to come:An Indian revolution? No, sir. It won't happen. People in this country are still waiting for the war of their freedom to come from somewhere else -- from the jungles, from the mountains, from China, from Pakistan. That will never happen. (p. 261)The White Tiger explores many of the same themes as A Fine Balance, but I found the latter better-written and far more moving. This was an OK read, but disappointing compared to other Booker Prize winners.
    • 4/5
      Although I have read similar books, The White Tiger grew on me, especially at the end. The narrator is a sympathetic figure for the most part, as he is trodden upon and misused by his family, the society he is raised in and his employers. Often, as he points out himself, he is so used to being abused that he cannot tell that is what's going on. However, slowly he becomes aware of his low position and becomes more and more angry until he lashes out against the system and maneuvers to stake out a place for himself amongst India's new "entrepreneurs." However, at the end the novel clearly shows that in so doing he has become exactly as corrupt as those who kept him down all these years. This is the point at which the book began to distinguish itself from others I have read and gain some real emotional impact for me. I did think it would make a good movie. I wonder if anyone will try?
    • 4/5
      The story was compelling and a quick read. The speaker was entertaining, sarcastic, and witty. I can however, understand why many take issue with the novel as it combines realism with a scathing commentary of the Indian class/political system (albeit couched in platitudes and the unreliability of a suspect narrator). What many novels do implicitly, this does overtly. Enjoyed the tongue and cheek nod to the prefatory disclaimer tradition.
    • 4/5
      A cynical and acrid look at surviving in India, this book transports the reader in the underbelly of poor, underprivileged India. It is a scathing look at corruption, at family pressures, at religious traditions: all constraints that might prevent a person from gaining his freedom. The tone is full of rage, bitterness, and as innocence and loyalty fade, it is full opportunism and greed.This is not a happy or easy novel: all characters deserve a careful look - they are multidimensional and full of contradictions. The plot is carefully constructed and the reader is lured into the intricacies of all that happens. This in fact reminded me of a « Bonfire of the Vanities » from the poor's point of view: how destinies can twist in flash but force of character is what will distinguish one person from another.A rich, passionate tale, well-worth reading.
    • 5/5
      As I was reading this, it occured to me that if you relocated The Remains of the Day to India and then had the story reinterpreted by John Irving, the result would probably be very similar to The White Tiger. One afternoon, Balram Halwai hears on the radio that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is coming to India to talk to entrepreneurs. Balram sees himself as the ultimate entrepreneur and thinks his is the only story Jiabao really needs to hear. The novel is Balram's letter to Premier Jiabao, written over the course of one week, describing how he came to be such a success: his childhood in the poor village of Laxmangarh, his father's death, the beginning of his career as a chauffer to one of India's wealthy landlords, and his eventual determination to break out of a life of indentured servitude.There is a lot of humour and wit in Balram's story, but there is also sadness and anger. Balram struggles with doing what is best for his family vs. what he wants for himself. He is greatly affected by his father's death and is determined to create a better life for himself but, as it becomes more attainable, Balram also struggles to maintain his own values in the face of what he sees as the corruption of the rich. In addition to all of these conflicts going on within Balram, we see an India that is struggling to find its own way while edging closer to civil war. Through Balram's letters, we experience an India that is vivid in its sights, sounds, and smells. There is beauty but there is also chaos, there is the Light and the Darkness. Adiga's writing and imagery are fantastic throughout the book.I can't say enough great things about The White Tiger. I loved it from start to finish and didn't want to put it down. It seems so simple as you read it but it gets under your skin, it gets in your head, and just takes over. I highly recommend this.Overall: a funny, sad, and very memorable read. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Balram Halwai rises from truly abject poverty to be a driver and general servant to a very wealthy man. He desperately wants to escape from this prison of servitude, but doesn't quite see how to manage it. After years of observing the actions of his "betters", he learns how to effect his escape, and becomes an entrepreneur. Adiga brings the contradictions of Indian society to vivid life. Although there's a lot of anger in this book, there's also compassion for the Indians trapped by their society and government, no matter what their level of of wealth or social status. An amazing plus to this sad story is that it's also full of humor, some of it laugh-out-loud funny.I loved this book and highly recommend it to anyone.
    • 5/5
      Balram Halwai narrates his climb out of the "darkness" of his poor roots in a small politically corrupted and impoverished area in India, through his sarcastic emails sent over seven nights to the Minister of China. Balram unusually becomes a lovable character even though, from the word go, the reader knows his rise to wealth is attributed solely to the murder and robbery of his "master". Balram thinks of it more as simply being an entrepreneur.A very easy read, and fantastic debut novel in which the last 30 or so pages certainly helped seal the 2008 Man Booker prize.It will be interesting to see what this new author can do on his second effort......
    • 4/5
      The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga tells the story of one’s man’s life dealing with the injustice of the caste system in India and of how he escaped and became an entrepreneurial success. This is not an uplifting story. I was not left with a feeling of hope even though the way in which the story was told was light and humorous.An Indian entrepreneur, Valram Halwai, tells the story through a letter that he writes to the Chinese Premier who is slated to visit and has suggested he would like to speak to an Indian entrepreneur because China does not have any at this point. This is pointed out on page 2:“Apparently, sir, you Chinese are far ahead of us in every respect, except that you don’t have entrepreneurs. And our nation, though it has no drinking water, electricity, sewage system, public transportation, sense of hygiene, discipline, courtesy, or punctuality, DOES have entrepreneurs. Thousands and thousands of them. Especially in the field of technology.”This sets the stage for the book and introduces one of the main themes, which is the lack of basic necessities in India and this leads into the book’s major premise, India’s caste system and the world of difference between the haves and have nots, “The Light and The Dark”. Valram is born into a very poor family. His father is a rickshaw driver, his family lives in a shack and they have absolutely nothing. He has a couple of years of school but it becomes apparent that he needs to go to work to help support the family. His caste is meant to be producers of sweets so his grandmother determines he should work in the tea shop. However, Valram sets his sights much higher. He wants to be a driver for the wealthy and that is how he ends up working for Mr. Ashok, his wife Pinky Madam, his father The Stork and his brother Mukesh. This is where Valram learns the lessons of life that determine the course he eventually follows. Examples of the sad state of affairs in India today are prevalent throughout the book:1. Government officials and politicians must be paid off by businessmen in order for commerce to take place2. Those stuck at the bottom layers of the caste system seldom escape from it and are actually held down by others who are in the same strata3.Corruption among the police is widespread4.Although his boss complains that because of Halram’s limited education, “he probably has what…two, three years of schooling in him? He can read and write, but he doesn’t get what he’s read. He’s half-baked. The country is full of people like him, I’ll tell you that. And we entrust our glorious parliamentary democracy to characters like these.” (page 8) Yet the fingerprints of the illiterate are taken from them to use on ballots at election time and they never actually get to vote themselves.5.The “servants” of the rich are treated with disdain and are not able to maintain their dignityValram finally decides that there is only one way for him to escape his circumstances and therein lies the crux of the situation. The reader must decide if he was justified in doing what he had to do to escape. The author provides a lot of opportunities for moral lessons but leaves the reader holding the bag. Cynical, irreverent and very, very funny. 2008 Man Booker Prize Winner. Highly recommended.
    • 3/5
      The book tells the story of a boy who came out of poverty and is now a succesfull man. It is well written and you want to know what exactly happened. The book is written for the prime minister of China, which is to me an unnecessary trick that does not really improve the story.
    • 5/5
      This book is at the same time hysterically funny and horrifyingly stark. The book is comprised of a series of installments on a letter from an Indian "entrepreneur" to the Premier of China who is about to visit India. the narrator has decided that telling his life story will enlighten the Premier as to the true nature of India. The story goes from the "darkness" of the poverty stricken to the life of a wealthy, corrupt family , from the viewpoint of the narrator, their driver. This is a satiric look at what in not funny at all. Hold on for the ride!
    • 3/5
      Vivid unsentimental hard to dislodge from the imagination a boy from India's rural depths makes his way to Delhi and entrepreneurial success; given modest adjustments of time place and gender this is an eighteenth centrury tale of a servant girl embacing vice to escape povert y and annonymity. Survival means concentrating at all time on self interest; and crime and cruelty pay-off if youre lucky. For all the exotic particulalrities of 21st century India this story is completely recognizable, funny and enjoyable.social setting where no-0ne is admirable our hero triumphs by rigorously
    • 3/5
      This was a good book, but nothing amazing in my eyes. I guess I felt like I knew enough about India that these things weren't shocking or eye-opening at all. I just saw myself reading and thinking "yup, that makes sense."

      I feel absolutely neutral toward this book and its characters, which is not usual for me.
    • 3/5
      I was surprised by this book. I thought it would help me understand current Indian culture, but I didn't learn much. Interesting way that a village boy transforms himself into the owner of a taxi company in Bangalore, but I didn't like any of the characters.
    • 3/5
      This is the most recent Booker Prize winner, and I’m afraid to say it hasn’t done anything to redeem the prize in my eyes after the dreadful The Gathering which won the previous year. It is not so much that it is a bad book, it just isn’t a great book and it makes me wonder that the competition was like if this was the book that won.The book is narrated by Balram Halwai in the form of a series of emails to the leader of China who is due to make a visit to India. Within these messages, he describes the new economy of India and his raise from a lowly driver to a successful businessman. The name the White Tiger refers to him being a rare creature that comes along only once or twice in each generation.The book is full of sly observations about the economy built on outsourcing, the Caste system and the differences between urban and rural life. At times it threatened to be interesting or exciting but then it just fizzled away again. I also had the impression that the author was writing specifically for Western audiences in this portrayal of various Indian types.Overall, rather a disappointing read.
    • 3/5
      Adiga has written an engaging story about a "self-made" entrepreneur in modern Bangalore, India. In the tradition of Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison, he details the story of his life as a servant, in which he has been slowly but surely worn down and mistreated. The solution to a life of poverty and servitude, as the narrator presents it, is to raise oneself up by any means possible, including murder.
      For the average western reader, The White Tiger is definitely an effective rebuke of the Indian caste system. But I'm not sure it is telling us anything we haven't heard already: The system is corrupt and pervasive...the rich get richer and the poor stay poor; Class is ingrained so deeply in Indian society that it will take generations for it to change. Money does nothing but corrupt, etc.
      I was hoping to read something unexpected; to be treated to a side of this story that was unfamiliar. Instead, we are taken through the events by a narrator who seems suspiciously well-spoken and insightful for his position. At first I thought that the narrator was simply meant to be an unreliable narrator--one who claims to tell the truth but is actually manipulating and lying to the reader. But after reading some criticism of the novel, I started to think that maybe it wasn't a device on the writer's part, but, rather, a reflection of the fact that the author was not of the same social class as the narrator he was trying to speak for.
      Now, it's not that I don't think writers should try to give voice to those who don't have the opportunity to speak for themselves. On the contrary, I think that is one of the highest goals of art. But if you're going to do it, do it well, and don't make your hero a wishy washy villain.
    • 5/5
      this is a truely amazing book, from start to finish! a real inside story from a poor person in india who made good of his life, even if he had to kill his master to get there!the book draws you in making you turn the pages, wanting to know more!the book had me laughing in parts with its blunt honesty! would recommend this to everyone!
    • 2/5
      The White Tiger makes a contribution to a subgenre in Indian writing which portrays ‘The Darkness’ that exists as an undercurrent beneath the economic boom and globalisation in urban India. The Mark of Vishnu by Manil Suri (fiction) and Temptations of the West by Pankaj Mishra (non fiction) are some others I can recall.In a funny, irreverant but hard-hitting account of a man from rural Bihar, Aravind Adiga exposes the utter callousness that exists about basic human dignity and quality of life, outside the glamour and affluence of the big cities. This is the India where rampant corruption, and the evils of the caste system combine to create a wretched existence for most people who live inside it.A review by Kevin Rushby in the Guardian said : “My hunch is that this is fundamentally an outsider's view and a superficial one. There are so many other alternative Indias out there, uncontacted and unheard.”I can assure Mr. Rushby that the picture that Adiga paints is anything but superficial. It is just that the rich, and the rising middle class choose to ignore the ‘alternative India’ that exists right outside the comforts of their compounded enclaves.The only reason I gave the book 4 stars was because of a small bit in between which was bit of a drag.
    • 4/5
      An interesting book that grows on you and has a lot to say about the world today!From The New YorkerIn this darkly comic début novel set in India, Balram, a chauffeur, murders his employer, justifying his crime as the act of a "social entrepreneur." In a series of letters to the Premier of China, in anticipation of the leader’s upcoming visit to Balram’s homeland, the chauffeur recounts his transformation from an honest, hardworking boy growing up in "the Darkness"—those areas of rural India where education and electricity are equally scarce, and where villagers banter about local elections "like eunuchs discussing the Kama Sutra"—to a determined killer. He places the blame for his rage squarely on the avarice of the Indian élite, among whom bribes are commonplace, and who perpetuate a system in which many are sacrificed to the whims of a few. Adiga’s message isn’t subtle or novel, but Balram’s appealingly sardonic voice and acute observations of the social order are both winning and unsettling.
    • 5/5
      This novel takes the form of a series of letters from "The White Tiger", Balram Halwai, to a Chinese dignatory about to visit Bangalore where Balram is a successful entrepreneur. The format doesn't detract from the fast-moving plot -- I often forgot completely about the faceless Wen Jiabao -- except when he was mentioned again. Mr. Jiabao is a representative for all of the readers who need to have Balram's story explained to them.This novel presents a low-caste, servant's perspective on class and society in India. Balram is a driver for a coal entrepreneur, Mr. Ashok. In cynical, unromanticized and sometimes humorous prose, the author describes the life of the servant class and their masters.At the beginning of the novel, we are told that Balram's rise from abject poverty and servitude to riches and success as a businessman are the result of his killing his master. We later learn that his success is also a product of abandoning his family and bribing the police. He is Horatio Alger's worst nightmare! Balram, like all the other characters, are complex and not easy to like. They are very real people, and that is what drew me deep into this amazing story.
    • 4/5
      A very interesting read!! A subtitle to this book might have been---"a guide to entrepreneurship in India." or "how the chicken flew the coop!" A clever presentation of the Indian culture and how it is changing from a bottom-up perspective. This novel, along with "The Life of Pi" both present a complex Indian culture which is rapidly emerging as one of the world's great economic powers. Animals are intelligently used in the imagery of both of these novels. I enjoyed it immensely!!!
    • 4/5
      Why: Booker Prize 2008, heard good things.Booker seems to like class inequity themes and boy did it find a doozy in this one. The story of how one man overcomes a deeply ingrained servant mentality to turn the tables on his master (not boss: master) to take advantage of India’s technology boom and become one of the haves. The blurb on the cover has a critic saying the book hit him or her like a kick to the head and throughout most of the book I reserved judgment on that, but having finished it, I totally know what he or she meant. Balram almost dares you to judge him on his dishonest and violent actions in the face of an extremely corrupt political system and the apathy of a ruling class that treats servants like animals. “Let animals live like animals; let humans live like humans. That’s my whole philosophy in a sentence.” I read this book in about a day, maybe two: it’s entertaining, funny, and shocking. It’s also guaranteed to have the reader questioning her own place in the social structure, and what the cost of the place is, to herself and others. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      This novel is amazing. It is not a light and cheery novel; it requires some dedication to get through but the ending brings everything together in such a magnificent manor...I'm still torn over whether to applaud the White Tiger or not. Really, I think he deserves a hand.
    • 5/5
      I'm on an Indian kick. I took a year or so to savor A Fine Balance, The Namesake the following year, then Shantaram. Then I saw Slumdog Millionaire and bought the CD so I've been stewing in those rhythms as I read White Tiger. Now I'm reading Eat, Pray, Love before the movie hits. It suffers a tad in comparison to the other novels so my mind wanders to what's next in my Indian reading queue. Heat and Dust? Interpreter of Maladies? Something by Thrity Umrigar? Another Naipaul? What a delightful quandary.