When Balram moves to Delhi with Ashok and Pinky Madam, the living conditions of drivers are shocking, and almost as disheartening as Balram’s realisation that his life is likely never going to improve. Adiga does not romanticise poverty, and there are some very difficult scenes in this book including each of the deaths of Balram’s parents. However, alongside all the levity in this book comes some very challenging topics. There was also an interesting queer subtext to this book that is only ever hinted at (like Balram referring to his former boss Ashok as his “ex”) and for anyone interested, Fernando Sanchez wrote a detailed essay about this subject. His use of metaphor describing roosters in a cage never rising up against their masters who slaughter their friends was chilling, and even more so every time Balram’s grandmother writes to him demanding he marry and promising to make him a chicken curry (which Balram pointedly refuses). However, Adiga’s novel is also a piercing commentary on the inequality caused initially by colonialism and cemented by corruption. Balram has a keen natural intelligence, only limited by his experiences and education, and his commentary about business and politics is an excellent example of dramatic irony being used to comedic effect. This is an incredibly clever book with an utterly charming protagonist. Of key importance is how Balram secured a job driving for the young heir Mr Ashok and his wife Pinky Madam, and it quickly becomes clear that Balram’s path to fortune had some morally suspect hurdles. Structured as a series of dictated letters recorded over a number of late nights, Balram, a successful entrepreneur, decides to write to a Chinese Premier who is visiting Bangalore about how he rose from poverty to success. “The White Tiger” by Aravind Adiga is a novel set in India about a young man known as Balram who gets a job as a driver for a wealthy family. The cover is white with large stylised writing in black and red and letter Is dotted with orange tiger eyes, with an image of an orange car striped liked a tiger. Above the objects embedded into the wall is a small gold figure of the Hindu god Ganesh. The paperback book is sitting in front of a redbrick wall next to a crystal tumbler and a small bottle of rum. Image is of “The White Tiger” by Aravind Adiga. There’s nothing like a film adaptation to motivate me to read a book, and I was pretty confident this was going to be good. Sat, until, I saw a trailer for the new Netflix adaptation. I actually tried to start reading it a while ago but wasn’t quite in the right headspace, so put it back on my shelf where it sat for even longer waiting its turn. This book was a Man Booker Prize winner and I picked up a copy ages ago from the Lifeline Book Fair. Novel about ambition and inequality set in India

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