""It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured."" So begins this epic, mesmerizing first novel by Gregory David Roberts, set in the underworld of contemporary Bombay. "Shantaram" is narrated by Lin, an escaped convict with a false passport who flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of a city where he can. ""It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured."" So begins this epic, mesmerizing first novel by Gregory David Roberts, set in the underworld of contemporary Bombay