{"product_id":"shantaram-by-gregory-david-roberts-9781742611075","title":"Shantaram","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eShantaram\u003c\/em\u003e is a novel based on the life of the author, Gregory David Roberts. In 1978, Roberts was sentenced to nineteen years imprisonment as punishment for a series of robberies of building-society branches, credit unions, and shops he had committed while addicted to heroin. In July 1980, he escaped from Victoria's maximum-security prison in broad daylight, thereby becoming one of Australia's most wanted men for what turned out to be the next ten years.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFor most of this period, he lived in Bombay. He set up a free health clinic in the slums, acted in Bollywood movies, and worked for the Bombay mafia as a forger, counterfeiter, and smuggler. As a gun-runner, he resupplied a unit of mujaheddin guerrilla fighters in Afghanistan. This is the setting of \u003cem\u003eShantaram\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eApart from having this highly unusual personal background, Greg Roberts is a very gifted writer. His book is a blend of vivid dialogue, unforgettable characters, amazing adventures, and superb evocations of Indian life. It can be read as a vast, extended thriller, as well as a superbly written meditation on the nature of good and evil.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt is a compelling tale of a hunted man who had lost everything—his home, his family, and his soul—and came to find his humanity while living at the wildest edge of experience.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Macmillan Publishers New Zealand Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47598183284972,"sku":"9781742611075","price":37.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/3550a26305e5cfde5c01f01b91d3ebb2.jpg?v=1778026817","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/products\/shantaram-by-gregory-david-roberts-9781742611075","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}