As part of my book club I recently read the wonderful novel, Shantaram, by Aussie Gregory David Roberts. It’s a very large and gripping book influenced by real events of Roberts.

In 1978, Roberts was sentenced to 19-year imprisonment in Australia after being convicted of a series of armed robberies of building society branches, credit unions, and shops. In July 1980, he escaped from Victoria’s Pentridge Prison in broad daylight, thereby becoming one of Australia’s most wanted men for the next ten years.

He escapes to Mumbai (or Bombay back then) carrying a false passport in the name of Lindsay Ford. Next, the reader follows him living in the slums, becoming a make-shift doctor, friend to the locals, stand over man for local mafia and even running a business supplying extras for Bollywood movies.

He works in the black market, travels to Afghanistan to smuggle weapons for mujahideen freedom fighters and is planning a trip to Sri Lanka for criminal activities at the end of the book. It’s a fantastic story and what’s more remarkable is it’s based on a true story.

Buy it, it’s just too crazy not to love it.