Fiction, World Literature, Fiction Subjects

Q & A

Name: Q & A
Author: Vikas Swarup
ISBN: 9780743267489

by Vikas Swarup

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Overview

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 squalor 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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Synopsis

The New York Times - Elsa Dixler

warup, an Indian diplomat and first-time novelist, writes humorously and keeps the surprises coming. When it is turned into the movie it wants to be, Q & A will be a delight.

About the Author, Vikas Swarup

Vikas Swarup is an Indian diplomat who has served in Turkey, the United States, Ethiopia, and Great Britain. Q & A, his first novel, is being translated into eighteen languages and is due to be made into a film. Swarup currently works in the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi.

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Editorials

Elsa Dixler

warup, an Indian diplomat and first-time novelist, writes humorously and keeps the surprises coming. When it is turned into the movie it wants to be, Q & A will be a delight.
— The New York Times

Publishers Weekly

This production gains much from Shale's excellent and lively performance. The text could easily have been overdone but Shale makes it sincere, hilarious, heartbreaking and delightful. Ram Muhammad Thomas-a young orphan with no formal education-correctly answers all 12 questions on Who Wants to Win a Billion? and is arrested and jailed when the unscrupulous quiz-show producers, reluctant to pay out the winnings, accuse him of cheating. In order to prove his innocence, he recounts his life story in 12 interludes, each eventually explaining the extraordinary circumstances that taught him one of the answers. Ram's life, full of horrors, becomes an allegory for all the problems of the lower classes in India, and the fantastic situations that lead him to win the quiz show take on mythic proportions. Ram's appeal lies in his childlike openness and wonder, and that of the story lies in hearing a full life unwind from the tiniest of details. Each tale is peopled by memorable characters-some recurring-and Shale gives each a distinct voice. His gifted reading, full of emphasis, inflection and excitement, is a joy to listen to. Simultaneous release with the Scribner hardcover (Reviews, July 11). (Aug.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Swarup's debut novel is not for the faint of heart. Set in contemporary India, it opens with the arrest of a poor orphan boy named Ram Mohammed Thomas who wins the ultimate prize on a quiz show called Who Will Win a Billion?, only to be arrested and tortured by police and unscrupulous television executives reluctant to cough up the rupees. This episode turns out to be the first in a string of appalling acts that unfold throughout the novel and ostensibly illustrate not only the disturbing conditions of India's lower classes but also the terrible oppression that many women and children are forced to endure in that country. Combined with a picaresque first-person narrative, these themes turn Q & A into an uncommon modern-day saga. There are many moments, however, when Swarup's prose reads as though something has been lost in translation. The formal dialog makes it difficult to conjure the authentic sights and sounds of Indian urban street life, and the excessive number of horrific acts in some ways desensitizes the reader to the characters' plights. That said, the book is still a readable and inventive piece of social commentary that should strike a chord with admirers of somewhat melodramatic, Dickens-like fiction. Recommended for large contemporary fiction collections.-Kevin Greczek, Ewing, NJ Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.