Gregory David Roberts, novel "Shantaram": summary, main character

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Have you read "Shantaram" yet, reviews of which are the most positive? Perhaps, after getting acquainted with the summary of the work, you will want to do this. A description of the famous creation of Gregory David Roberts and its plot are presented in this article.

About the novel in brief

Surely you have already heard something about such a novel as Shantaram. Quotes from the work are increasingly appearing on the pages of social networks. What is the secret of his popularity?

The novel "Shantaram" is a work of about 850 pages. However, this does not stop many readers. "Shantaram" is a book that is recognized as one of the best novels of the early 21st century. This is the confession of a man who managed to escape from the abyss and survive, survive. The novel became a real bestseller. It has earned comparison with the works of such famous authors as Hemingway and Melville.

"Shantaram" is a book based on real events. Its hero, like the author, hid from the law for many years. After divorce from wifehe was deprived of parental rights, then became a drug addict, committed a series of robberies. An Australian court sentenced him to 19 years in prison. However, in his second year, Roberts escaped from a maximum security prison, as did Shantaram. Quotes from his interviews often appear in the press. Roberts' further life is connected with India, where he was a smuggler and counterfeiter.

Shantaram was published in 2003 (by GD Roberts, pictured below). The piece impressed columnists for the Washington Post and USA Today. Currently, a film adaptation is planned based on the book "Shantaram". Johnny Depp himself should become the producer of the picture.

Today, many advise reading "Shantaram". Reviews about him are the most positive. However, the novel is quite large in volume, not everyone can master it. Therefore, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the retelling of the novel "Shantaram". The summary will give you some idea about this piece.

Summary

The story is told on behalf of a man who escaped from prison. The setting of the novel is India. Shantaram is the name of the main character, also known as Lindsay Ford (under that name he is hiding). Lindsay comes to Bombay. Here he meets "the city's best guide" Prabaker, who finds him cheap accommodation and volunteers to show him around the city.

Ford almost gets hit by a bus due to heavy traffic on the streets, but Carla, a green-eyed brunette, saves the protagonist. This girl frequents the bar"Leopold", which Ford soon becomes a regular. He understands that this is a semi-criminal place, and Carla is also involved in some kind of shady business.

Lindsay befriends Prabaker, as well as Carla, whom he meets frequently and falls more and more in love with. Prabaker shows the protagonist the "real Bombay". He teaches him to speak Marathi and Hindi, the main Indian dialects. Together they visit a market where orphans are sold, as well as one of the hospices where the terminally ill live out their lives. Prabaker, showing Ford all this, as if testing his strength.

Ford lives in his family for half a year. He works with others in the public fields and also helps one teacher who teaches English. Prabaker's mother calls the protagonist Shantaram, which means "peaceful person." He is persuaded to stay, to become a teacher, but he refuses.

Ford is robbed and beaten on his way to Bombay. Deprived of funds, he is forced to become an intermediary between hashish traders and foreign tourists. Ford now lives in Prabaker's slum. During the visit of the hero to the "standing monks", who vowed never to lie down or sit down, Carla and Ford are attacked by a man with a weapon who has smoked hashish. A stranger who introduced himself as Abdullah Taheri neutralizes the madman.

Further on, a fire breaks out in the slums. Ford, knowing the basics of first aid, is taken to treat burns. During the fire, he finally decides to become a doctor Shantaram. Author moreproceeds to the presentation of the second part of the novel.

Second part

Ford escaped from Australia's most secure prison in broad daylight. He climbed into a hole in the roof of the building where the guards lived. The zeks were repairing this building, and Ford was one of them, so the guards did not pay attention to him. The protagonist fled, trying to escape the brutal beatings he was subjected to every day.

A runaway Shantaram sees prison in his dreams at night. We will not describe the description of his dreams. To avoid them, the hero wanders around Bombay at night. Ford is ashamed that he lives in a slum and does not meet his former friends. He misses Carla, but is focused on his profession as a healer.

Abdullah introduces the main character to one of the leaders of the local mafia named Abdel Qader Khan. He is a sage and respected person. He divided Bombay into districts, each of which is governed by a council of crime lords. Residents call Abdel Kaderbhai. The main character converges with Abdullah. Ford lost his daughter and wife forever, so he sees a brother in him, and a father in Abdel.

Ford's clinic after meeting with Kaderbhai is supplied with medical instruments and medicines. Prabaker doesn't like Abdullah as the slum dwellers believe he is a contract killer. Ford is engaged not only in the clinic, but also in mediation. This brings the hero a significant income.

This is how 4 months pass. The hero sometimes sees Carla, but does not approach the girl, fearing his own poverty. Carla herself comes to him. They are having lunch and Fordlearns about a certain Sapna - an avenger who kills the rich of the city.

The main character helps Carla rescue her friend Lisa from the brothel. This Palace, owned by Madame Zhu, is notorious in Bombay. Once, through the fault of Madame, Carla's lover died. Ford pretends to be an employee of the American embassy, on behalf of the girl's father who wants to ransom her. The hero talks to Carla, but she says she hates love.

Third part

The cholera epidemic covers the slums, and soon the entire village. Ford struggles with the disease for 6 days, Carla helps him. The girl tells the hero her story. She was born in Basel, her father was an artist, and her mother was a singer. The girl's father died, and her mother poisoned herself with sleeping pills a year later. After that, 9-year-old Carla was taken by an uncle who lived in San Francisco. After 3 years, he died, and the girl stayed with her aunt. She didn't love Carla and she didn't even get the bare necessities.

When Carla became a high school student, she started babysitting. One day, the father of the child she visited raped her and announced that Carla had provoked him. The aunt took the side of the rapist. She kicked Carla out of the house. At this time she was 15 years old. Since then, for Carla, love has become inaccessible. She ended up in India after meeting an Indian businessman on a plane.

Ford, having stopped the epidemic, goes to the city to earn money. Ulla, one of Karla's friends, asked him to meet a certain person at the Leopold, as she was afraid to go alone to meet him. Ford senses imminent danger, howeveragrees. Shortly before this meeting, the hero meets Carla, they become close.

Ford goes to jail

Ford is arrested on the way to the Leopold. He spends three weeks in a police station, in an overcrowded cell, and then ends up in prison. Constant beatings, hunger and blood-sucking insects drain Ford's strength in just a few months. He cannot send a message to freedom, as those who want to help him are beaten. However, Kaderbhai finds out where Ford is. He pays a ransom for it.

Long awaited freedom

After prison, he works for Kaderbhaya Shantaram. The summary of his further misadventures is as follows: he tries in vain to find Karla, but does not find her in the city. The hero thinks that the girl may have thought he ran away. Ford wants to find out who is responsible for his misfortunes. The hero deals with fake passports and smuggled gold. He earns decently, rents a good apartment. Ford rarely sees his friends in the slum and gets closer and closer to Abdullah.

In Bombay after the death of Indira Gandhi comes a turbulent period. The main character is on the international wanted list. Only the influence of Kaderbhai saves him from prison. The hero learns that he was imprisoned on the denunciation of one woman. He meets with Lisa, whom he once saved from a brothel. The girl got rid of drug addiction and works in Bollywood. Ford also meets Ulla, but she does not know anything about his arrest.

Meeting Carla in Goa

The main character finds Carla, whowent to Goa. They spend a week together. Ford tells the girl that he committed an armed robbery in order to get money for drugs. He became addicted to them after the loss of his daughter. Karla on the last night asks the hero to stay with her, not to work for Kaderbhai anymore. However, Ford does not tolerate the pressure and is sent back. Once in Bombay, the hero learns that Sapna killed one of the members of the mafia council, and also that he was imprisoned on the denunciation of a foreign woman who lives in Bombay.

Fourth part

Ford under Abdullah Ghani deals with fake passports. It carries out flights within India, as well as beyond its borders. He likes Lisa, but he does not dare to get close to her. Ford is still thinking about the missing Carla.

Further in the work, Gregory David Roberts describes Prabaker's marriage, to whom Ford gives a taxi driver's license. A few days later, Abdullah dies. The police believe that he is Sapna, and they shoot him outside the police station.

After a while, the main character learns that Prabaker had an accident. A cart with steel bars drove into his taxi. Prabaker was stripped of the lower half of his face. Within three days he was dying in the hospital. Ford, having lost close friends, falls into depression. He spends 3 months in an opium den while under the influence of heroin. Karla, along with Kaderbhai's bodyguard Nazir, who has always disliked the protagonist, take him to a house on the coast. They help Ford get rid of his addiction.

Kaderbhai is convinced that Abdullah and Sapna are different persons,that Abdullah was slandered by enemies. He decides to deliver medicines, spare parts and ammunition to Kandahar besieged by the Russians. Kaderbhai intends to personally carry out this mission, he calls Ford with him. Afghanistan is filled with tribes at war with each other. To get to Kaderbhai's location, he needs a foreigner who can pretend to be a "sponsor" of the war from America. This role should be played by Ford. Before leaving, the main character spends the last night with Carla. The girl wants him to stay, but she cannot confess her love to Ford.

The backbone of the Kaderbhai detachment is being formed in the border town. Before leaving, Ford learns that Madame Zhu is the woman who put him in jail. He wants to return to take revenge on her. Kaderbhai tells the protagonist how in his youth he was expelled from his native village. At the age of 15, he killed a man, thus starting a war between the clans. Only after the disappearance of Kaderbhai did this war end. Now he wants to return to his native village, located near Kandahar, he wants to help his relatives. Habib Abdur Rahman leads a detachment across the border into Afghanistan. He wants revenge on the Russians who massacred his family. Before the squad gets to the Mujahideen, Khabib loses his mind. He runs away from the camp to start his own war.

The unit spends the winter repairing weapons for Afghan guerrillas. Before leaving for Bombay, Ford learns that his lover was working for Kaderbhai. She was looking for foreigners useful to him. So Karla found Ford. Meeting with Karla, meeting with Abdullah- it was all set up. The slum clinic was used as a testing ground for smuggled drugs. Kaderbhai, as it turned out, also knew that Ford was in prison. For the arrest of the protagonist, Madame Zhu helped Kaderbhai negotiate with politicians. Ford is furious but cannot hate Carla and Kaderbhai as he still loves them.

Gregory David Roberts further writes that after 3 days Kaderbhai dies - his detachment ends up in snares that were placed to catch Khabib. The camp is shelled, and fuel, medicines and provisions are destroyed. The new head of the squad believes that his shelling is part of the hunt for Khabib. Only 9 people remain alive after another raid. The camp is surrounded, there is no way to get food, and the scouts sent by the survivors are missing.

Khabib appears, who announces that you can try to break through the southeast direction. On the eve of the breakthrough, Khabib is killed by a man from the detachment, since the chains that he sees on his neck belong to missing scouts. Ford was shell-shocked during the breakthrough.

The fourth part of the novel "Shantaram" ends with these events. A summary of the final part is presented below.

Fifth part

Nazir saves Ford. The protagonist's hands are frostbitten, his body is wounded, and his eardrum is damaged. Only the intervention of Nazir saves him from amputation of his hands in a Pakistani hospital, where the detachment was sent by people from a friendly tribe. For this, of course,thanks Shantaram.

Heroes Ford and Nazir 6 weeks get to Bombay. Ford wants revenge on Madame Zhu. Her Palace was burned down and looted by the mob. Ford decides not to kill Madame, as she is already broken and defeated. The main character again trades in fake documents. He contacts the new council through Nazir. Ford yearns for Kaderbhai, Abdullah and Prabaker. As for Carla, the affair with her is over - the girl returned to Bombay with a new friend.

Relationship with Lisa saves Ford from loneliness. The girl talks about the fact that Carla left the United States, having killed the man who raped her. On the plane, she met Kaderbhai and began working for him. Ford after this story is covered with melancholy. The protagonist thinks about drugs, but Abdullah appears alive and he althy. He was abducted from the station after meeting with the police, after which he was taken to Delhi. Here Abdullah was treated for severe wounds for about a year. He returned to Bombay to deal with the remaining members of Sapna's gang.

Ford eventually admits to himself that he himself destroyed his own family. He accepts his guilt. The hero is almost happy, because he has Lisa and money. Civil war breaks out in Sri Lanka. Kaderbhai wanted to participate in it. Nazir and Abdullah volunteer to continue his work. Ford has no place in the new mafia, so he is also going to fight.

The main character sees Carla for the last time. The girl calls him to stay with her, but Ford refuses. He understands that she does not love him. Carla is getting marriedrich friend, but her heart is still cold. The girl confesses that it was she who burned Madame Zhu's house.

Final piece

Ford learns that Sapna is gathering his army. The protagonist, after meeting with Carla, goes to the slums of Prabaker, where he spends the night. He meets the son of his dead friend. He inherited his father's smile. Ford understands that life goes on.

This ends Shantaram. The summary of the work, as we have already said, should become the basis for the upcoming film. After its release, we will have another opportunity to get acquainted with the plot of the novel without reading it. However, numerous reviews indicate that it is still worth reading Shantaram. Screen adaptation or summary of the work is not able to convey its artistic value. You can fully appreciate the novel only by referring to the original.

Surely you want to know when the movie "Shantaram" will appear. The release date is unknown, and the trailer has not yet appeared. Let's hope the movie gets made. Many fans of the novel are waiting for this. "Shantaram", the chapters of which we briefly described, certainly deserves a film adaptation. Well, let's wait and see!