The book by G. D. Roberts "Shantaram", published in 2003, introduced millions of readers to the Australian escaped from prison Lin and other unforgettable characters. In 2017, Anonymous Content and Paramount Studios acquired the rights not only to film the adaptation of Shantaram, but also its continuation, Shadow of the Mountain, which was released in 2015. What is the secret to the popularity of the novel?
Shantaram
The protagonist of the novel is a fugitive criminal Lindsay, who is hiding from justice and comes to India to start a new life. He walks through the streets of the city, where brilliance and poverty, kindness and wide smiles, murder and drugs, palaces and slums coexist safely. It is in the slums of Lin that it turns out when the money runs out.
In Bombay, he enters the mafia, begins to work for them. Lin finds true friends, Carla's beloved girl. It was the kindness and responsiveness of the people around who helped Lina rethink her own life and begin to appreciate what you have. The mother of one of the friends named him Shantaram, which means "peaceful man."
Lin illegally trades in gold, currency, and fake passports. After the death of the two best friends, he spends several months in a drug bar, from where he is pulled out by the mafiosi Kader Khan and helps to get rid of his addiction. Together they go to Kader’s homeland - to Afghanistan, where there was a war.
"Shadow of the mountain"
After the events described in the Shantaram, two years passed. Returning from that fateful trip, Lin continues to collaborate with the mafia. Carla's beloved girl married another; Lin “almost happily” got along with her best friend Lisa. The unfortunate Sanjay became the leader of the mafia, but despite the bitter losses, Lin will have to fulfill the last order given to them in the mountains of Afghanistan - to gain the wise man’s trust, gain faith and love.
Truth and fiction
Shantaram is a mixture of fiction and facts from the real life of Gregory David Roberts, whose biography contains such a fact as an escape from an Australian prison. The author says that he wanted to write two or three books and include real life events in them. But his novels are not an autobiography, the characters and dialogues in them are invented.
Writing is all that Gregory has been doing all his life. He sold the first story for money when he was 16 years old. All the characters in the novel and the plot are almost fictional. The topics of concern to the author were: in “Shantaram” - this is exile, in “Mountain Shadow” - the search for love and faith. The author says that these novels are not about him, the storyteller is a character who knows his thoughts and experiences, but nevertheless he is not Gregory John Peter Smith.
Creating a novel
When David begins a new romance, he creates the faces of the characters and sticks them to the corkboard on the wall. He writes every day, lives with his characters every hour of his life. It happens that it works in silence, sometimes to music. Creates playlists based on mood. As you move from one state to another in a novel, it changes the music to which it works - it helps to create a harmony of lines and rhymes.
David Roberts wrote his acclaimed book in the Bombay hotel - he turned a hotel room into a studio: he filled it with bright colors, textures, paintings and spiritual inspiration. This world became two years more real than life outside the window; it helped maintain a constant connection with the theme of the novel and the characters. He had few visitors, the writer rarely left the studio - once or twice a month. At the same time, several plays were written.
At first, Gregory created space - he studied the material, made a picture of the novel, drew a grid of chapters, combined the scenes that will occur in each of them. Then he began to layering symbolic images: mountains, animals, textures, smells, numbers. He moved these elements on the wall until he felt the right rhythm and mood.
"The length of 2.8 meters, the width of 60 cm is the final version of this" architectural masterpiece "," jokes Gregory David Roberts. The author’s biography indicates that he spent several years in India, and to describe nature or caves, he wandered around the area, explored the mountain in Sanjay Gandhi Park, a cave in Kanheri north of Bombay.
Worldview and philosophy
The books of G. D. Roberts are filled with philosophical meaning. His worldview was influenced by his mother, who instilled in him a love of philosophy: she read Socrates, Marcus Aurelius and Erasmus of Rotterdam, accustoming their son to their labors. When asked why the topic of his books was the search for love and faith, the writer replies that a long journey through science and prayers led him to this topic. He began to understand these things when he first lost them.
Gregory David took heroin for years and became a burglar to buy it. The writer says that he did not just break the law, but broke the covenant with society. He knows this firsthand, as he has acted dishonestly many times, destroying faith. Many years have passed, but he is still looking for a way to become part of the world and is learning about it. This is the story of love and faith. It is in the Shantaram. The book has a lot of wisdom and reflection, so the next novel, Shadow of the Mountain, has more humor.
short biography
Gregory David Roberts was born in 1952 in Melbourne (Australia). In 1978 he was sentenced to 19 years in prison for a series of armed robberies. Due to drug addiction, he lost his family and custody of his daughter. All the money went into drugs, but in order to get it, Gregory robbed institutions with insurance. He became known as the “burglar of a building society”, and for his habit of saying “thank you” and “please” to the people he robbed, he was called a “gentleman-bandit”.
In 1980, in broad daylight, he escaped from prison, settled in Mumbai, where he lived for 10 years. He contacted the local mafia, was sent to Arthur Road Prison, but thanks to bribes he was released. In Afghanistan, engaged in arms smuggling. In 1990 he was arrested in Frankfurt and extradited to Australia, where he spent 6 years in prison, 2 of them in solitary confinement.
After the novel "Shantaram"
After the release of the novel, Roberts dealt with issues of human rights, environmental protection and health, charitable activities. He is very concerned about the fact that in the world there are a lot of poor and destitute people. In 2014, on his website and on pages on social networks, Roberts announced that he was leaving public life: he would not go to parties, dinners, writers' festivals, meetings, sign books, etc.
After the novel "Shantaram", which refers to his daughter, the writer received many letters in which he was asked about the girl. Roberts replied that he appreciates the attention and care of readers, explained that he renewed relations with his daughter, but this information is very personal. The decision to leave public life has nothing to do with it, it just follows the call of the heart and spends more time with loved ones.
To be creative, he should be away from prying eyes with his family. Gregory David Roberts said about his biography that he was engaged to Francoise Sturds, president of the Hope Foundation in India. He is working on new books, a graphic novel, and has written a script for the upcoming series Shantaram. His favorite city "for dancing in the rain and riding a motorcycle" he will forever remain Bombay, although Roberts has been living in Switzerland for many years.