Sacred Games
by Vikram Chandra
List Price: $16.95
Pages: 992
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780061130366
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
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 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.
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"A pulsing thriller...Quite enough to enrapture a reader for 900 pages...the payoff is grand and satisfying."
Seattle Times
"Riveting... A splendidly big, finely made book destined to dazzle a big audience."
Booklist (Starred Review)
"Chandra... knows exactly when to break rules and when to follow them... Chandra’s genius is in the way he trusts his reader."
Los Angeles Times
"...stunning new novel... Chandra’s writing is so elegant and so irresistible, it elevates the classic cops-and-robbers story to new heights."
Kirkus Reviews