Novel of the week: The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

Aravind Adiga 's The White Tiger won Britain's Man Booker Prize. It is a powerful story of a low-born man's rise to success in India's caste system.

The White Tiger

by Aravind Adiga

(Free Press, $24)

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The novel that just won Britain’s Man Booker Prize “is one of the most powerful books I’ve read in decades,” said Deirdre Donahue in USA Today. Narrated by a Bangalore entrepreneur who reveals early on that he has murdered to get where he is, The White Tiger “hit me like a kick to the head.” Forget the polite tone of much recent Indian fiction. Think of low-born Balram Halwai as the second coming of a young Vito Corleone. The “great subject” of Aravind Adiga’s “caustically funny” debut is Balram’s struggle to overcome the urge to remain a docile member of the servant class, said Katherine A. Powers in The Boston Globe. It would be a thrilling tale about the corrupting nature of globalization and the crushing tyranny of India’s ancient caste system even if it weren’t also a chilling “story of a man’s soul.” Alas, the novel falls just shy of true greatness, said Tony D’Souza in The Washington Post. It arrives at one point at the brink of “deep Orwellian insight” only to retreat into mere black comedy.

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us