Q & A

by Vikas Swarup

Book Overview

Vikas Swarup's spectacular debut, which provided the inspiration for the award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire, is a page-turning and beguiling story of love, perseverance, and drama.Vikas Swarup's remarkable 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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743267486
• ISBN13: 9780743267489
• Release Date: August 2008
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Puts its Film Adaptation to shame...

...and the movie won god damned Best Picture of the year! This book is unlike any other. Unlike the film, the characters in Q & A are believable, placed in an unflinching environment, pitted against very real circumstances. Whats more is that the character is easy to relate to, smart, and strong willed, while still affected by the daunting effects of emotion and acts accordingly to whatever outstanding circumstance (None of which are far fetched, considering the location) Swarup creates. The story will not only borrow your heart during the time that will fly by while Ram Mohammad Thomas tells you about his hardships, but it will give you a real insight into the culture of Mumbai, India. This is a must read! You will not be displeased!

Great book and great movie

Everyone loves the movie slumdog but the book is so great in its own. It has such inspiration in it and is quite funny too. I would say if you have seen slumdog read this book and if you read the book watch the movie. They are quite different and in a good way. Read.

An Amazing Book!!!

After seeing Slumdog Millionaire, I told myself that I had to read the book. The book is wonderfully written and brings the same emotional energy from the film into writing, however most of the stories are extremely different. It is very clear to see how the book influenced the movie, but just don't be surprised on how different it really is. All and all, it was a fantastic read with a great ending that keeps you on your toes.

AMONG THE BEST SCRIPTS OF 2008

This is a review of the film's script, not the film itself. Apart from Frost/Nixon and Doubt, this is easily among the most gripping scripts of the year, and unlike Revolutionary Road or Doubt, it is quite a chromatic departure from the novel that inspired it. Kudos to Simon Beaufoy's endeavor. It's evident that much of the this film's breakneck sizzle came from its writing, and it only gets more layered when you read the screenplay. The Newmarket series has become a bit like the book version of the "DVD extras". These scripts include interesting tidbits ranging from introductions by people involved to color stills from the sets. This should explain why the script is triple the price of, say, the original novel. It's a worthy purchase for anyone who's looking at this page to begin with.

Beautiful and touching life journey told through a series of answers to quiz show questions

Author Swarup has a unqiue plan for telling the life story of Indian orphan Ram Mohammad Thomas. The novel opens with Ram in jail for correctly answering all thirteen questions on the show Who Will Will a Billion? The corrupt producers of the show would be bankrupted by having to pay out a billion rupees to the winner, and they never imagined at the poor orphan would be able to answer even two or three of the questions, so they get in league with the police to attempt to defraud Ram of his winnings. Enter a kind lawyer who heard of Ram's predicament. Throughout one evening, he tells her a series of twelve vignettes about his life, each of which helped him know the answer to one of the quiz show questions. Despite his poverty and lack of a family support system, Ram has lived a fascinating life, coming into money and losing it all, making friends, losing companions, and seeing the most amazing and unusual incidents. Ram Mohammad Thomas himself is an enigma--is he Hindu, Muslim, or Christian? He is a shape-shifter who can blend into different environments and assume different personality traits as needed. Ram has lived with a security-fanatic Australian army colonel, worked as a servant and confidante to an aging and depressed Bollywood film star, lived with a kind priest, fallen in love with a prostitute, worked as an unofficial tour guide to the Taj Mahal, rescued a family on a train from a bandit, caught thieves in his employers' homes, worked as a bartender and heard some amazing stories, and more. All of his stories are told with a charmning innocence--Ram always assumes the best of people, only to discover they are weakened due to alcoholism or political fraud or inner demons. One of my favorite parts was when a teenaged Ram tried to find a red light upon entering the red light district, only to have the nature of the neighborhood dawn on him several minutes later. Ram doesn't always live on the up-and-up in terms of the law, but he lives by his heart and tries to do right by the good people of his country. The conclusion of the book is absolutely beautiful, as many of Ram's good deeds in life come full circle to pay him back, and he is able to carve out his niche in India.