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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780743267489
ISBN number: 0743267486
Label: Scribner
Manufacturer: Scribner
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 336
Printing Date: August 12, 2008
Publishing house: Scribner
Sale Popularity Level: 16042
Studio: Scribner
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Product Description:
Vikas Swarup's spectacular debut novel opens in a jail cell in Mumbai, India, where Ram Mohammad Thomas is being held after correctly answering all twelve questions on India's biggest quiz show, Who Will Win a Billion? It is hard to believe that a poor orphan who has never read a newspaper or gone to school could win such a contest. But through a series of exhilarating tales Ram explains to his lawyer how episodes in his life gave him the answer to each question.
Ram takes us on an amazing review of his own history -- from the day he was found as a baby in the clothes donation box of a Delhi church to his employment by a faded Bollywood star to his adventure with a security-crazed Australian army colonel to his career as an overly creative tour guide at the Taj Mahal.
Swarup's Q & A is a beguiling blend of high comedy, drama, and romance that reveals how we know what we know -- not just about trivia, but about life itself. Cutting across humanity in all its squalour and glory, Vikas Swarup presents a kaleidoscopic vision of the struggle between good and evil -- and what happens when one boy has no other choice in life but to survive.
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Rated by buyers 
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Ram Mohammad Thomas is a boy from the Indian slums who has entered a "Who wants to be a millionaire" style television quiz show. Despite his lack of formal education, his life experiences have perfectly equipped him to answer each question that comes up. Because the show's organizers are sure that he must have cheated, they ask him to explain how he was able to answer such difficult and obscure questions. Each chapter deals with another question and answer, and as the book progresses his very colorful life story is also gradually revealed.
This is not the most well written book I've read, but the way that the plot unfolds is very clever and keeps the reader's attention throughout. It tears along at a quick pace: some parts are very amusing while others are very sad, but Swarup doesn't dwell on either. The way it all comes together at the end is highly contrived, but does make for a satisfactory conclusion.
If you enjoy books about India, there are other books that are more realistic or better written (I especially recommend the wonderful and highly moving novel "A Fine Balance"), but this is an easy and entertaining story.
Rated by buyers -
I ordered this book because i was anxious to read it before seeing the movie. The very first half of the book started off really well. Great character description, good feel for India, and exciting story... but, unfortunately, the story became absurd and completely unrealistic... this was the major downfall.
If you want to read an exciting and incredible story based in India try the book Shantaram... you won't be disappointed!
Rated by buyers 
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Vikas Swarup's "Q&A" (now re-titled "Slumdog Millionaire") is simply one of the worst novels ever written. Based on the premise of a poor boy winning the Indian version of the quiz program "Who wants to be a Millionaire?" ("Kaun Banega Crorepati" in India), the novel is simply a collection of chapters that are lifted straight out of various Bollywood movies, telling a series of improbable tales. These purport to be a sociological explanation of modern India, but are in fact little more than an outsider's version of various news stories about the most gory and obscure aspects of India's dark under-belly (Swarup is a diplomat by profession, and has spent almost all his career outside India, with scant first-hand knowledge of any of what he has written about). Writing awful nonsense (in mediocre prose) about India is a sure way to get rich these days (as the west is much more interested in such tawdry stories than the uplifting, genuinely literary offerings of genuinely great writers like Amitav Ghosh and Vikram Seth).
It is troubling and sad that such trash gets so much press (and is made into Hollywood potboilers too). Hopefully, posterity will know how to separate such chaff from the wheat.
Rated by buyers 
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I am, and have been, partial to books that concern themselves with the Indian dispora and/or take place on the Indian sub-continent. Well, Q & A is simply put a book, like the recent The White Tiger that uses the unique and complex Indian culure as its backdrop for a most involving and wonderful story that totally envelops you in its intricacy and irony and while it requires the reader to somewhat suspend reality it is just a great read and I can't wait to see the film that opens in the subsequent week or so (Slumdog Billionaire)
Rated by buyers -
I loved this book! I have finished it in 3 days, and it was hard to put it down. Extremely well written. I got such a vivid view of India through the eyes of Ram. I desperately want to read more now!!
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