Sacred Games

This book is an epic. Do not enter into this lightly, it will suck you in and take up a lot of your time, however if you do invest the time into it, you will be well rewarded with a kaleidoscope of themes that investigate corruption, crime, murder, gang culture, family relationships and a country bitterly divided along racial lines and swimming in a whirlpool of chaos that would be overwhelming to anyone from a western country and yet seemingly ordinary to India. This book really opened my eyes to what day to day India must be like, and it intrigued and terrified me in equal measure. The author makes no attempt to gloss over any unsavoury aspects to the country, particularly in terms of bribes and general 'everyday' corruption. He also doesn't shirk from dealing with the religious conflict that tore the country apart, with some really hard hitting chapters. And yet the image he paints is curiously beautiful. It's an incredibly overwhelming book - but so fantastic.