topics: |  fiction | india

Seven years in the making, Sacred Games is an epic of exceptional richness
and power. Vikram Chandra's novel draws the reader deep into the life of
Inspector Sartaj Singh — and into the criminal underworld of Ganesh Gaitonde,
the most wanted gangster in India. Sartaj, one of the very few Sikhs on the
Mumbai police force, is used to being identified by his turban, beard and the
sharp cut of his trousers. But "the silky Sikh" is now past forty, his
marriage is over and his career prospects are on the slide. When Sartaj gets
an anonymous tip-off as to the secret hide-out of the legendary boss of
G-Company, he's determined that he'll be the one to collect the prize. Vikram
Chandra's keenly anticipated new novel is a magnificent story of friendship
and betrayal, of terrible violence, of an astonishing modern city and its
dark side. Drawing inspiration from the classics of nineteenth-century
fiction, mystery novels, Bollywood movies and Chandra's own life and research
on the streets of Mumbai, Sacred Games evokes with devastating realism the
way we live now but resonates with the intelligence and emotional depth of
the best of literature.