• The White Tiger

  • A Novel
  • By: Aravind Adiga
  • Narrated by: John Lee
  • Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (3,495 ratings)

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The White Tiger  By  cover art

The White Tiger

By: Aravind Adiga
Narrated by: John Lee
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Publisher's summary

British Book Awards, Author of the Year, 2009.

Man Booker Prize, Fiction, 2008.

No saris. No scents. No spices. No music. No lyricism. No illusions.

This is India now.

Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life - having nothing but his own wits to help him along. Born in a village in the dark heart of India, Balram gets a break when he is hired as a driver for a wealthy man, two Pomeranians (Puddles and Cuddles), and the rich man's (very unlucky) son.

Through Balram's eyes, we see India as we've never seen it before: the cockroaches and the call centers, the prostitutes and the worshippers, the water buffalo and, trapped in so many kinds of cages that escape is (almost) impossible, the white tiger.

With a charisma as undeniable as it is unexpected, Balram teaches us that religion doesn't create morality and money doesn't solve every problem - but decency can still be found in a corrupt world, and you can get what you want out of life if you eavesdrop on the right conversations.

©2008 Aravind Adiga (P)2008 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Balram's evolution from likable village boy to cold-blooded killer is fascinating and believable." ( Library Journal)
"A brutal view of India's class struggles is cunningly presented in Adiga's debut....It's the perfect antidote to lyrical India." ( Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about The White Tiger

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,476
  • 4 Stars
    1,126
  • 3 Stars
    595
  • 2 Stars
    166
  • 1 Stars
    132
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,320
  • 4 Stars
    516
  • 3 Stars
    199
  • 2 Stars
    61
  • 1 Stars
    66
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    981
  • 4 Stars
    642
  • 3 Stars
    378
  • 2 Stars
    93
  • 1 Stars
    63

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Entertaining, thought-provoking, darkly funny

I highly recommend this audio book. I could have listened to all 8 hours in one sitting but wanted to savor it and so spread it out over a week. The story never dragged. The performance by the reader is first-rate, I could almost picture the characters through their voices. The audio book format works particularly well for this book because the story is structured as a narrated letter. I will be recommending this book for my book group because there will be a lot talk about. It may not be for everyone. It deals with themes of poverty, class, corruption, oppression and murder. However, for me, The White Tiger is one of the best, if not the best, audio book I have listened to.

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82 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Peculiar rather than entertaining; quirky.

Call me a Westerner; I don't mind. I like a book that has interesting characters and an interesting plot. I know that this author has won awards for this book, and I know that the Man Booker Prize is highly esteemed. However, I think it is a British/Continental award primarily, and the differences between those audiences and Western audiences is great. The book wanders in a completely directionless way through the life of the main character, who we are assured becomes an "entrepreneur" in Bangalore. However, the way in which he does this is inexplicable as far as I am concerned. Again, this may be part of a large East/West dichotomy of which I am ignorant. I trust that most Audible readers are Westerners who would like books they read to be accessible rather than plotless and confusing. One thing I can say that is clearly positive: John Lee's voice is by itself one of the most entertaining things I have ever listened to. If he were telling a story than made more sense, I would find a great deal more enjoyment in the endeavor of listening. The poverty of Indians is described in revolting detail. The trials that these people have to go through just to find a way to make a living for themselves and their families: these are horrendous journeys which would bring most of us Westerners to our knees. However, these struggles do not a novel make. At numerous points this book feels much more like reporting than the work of a fiction writer. All right all ready, I am convinced of the horrifying, degrading poverty above which the lowest caste Indians can barely rise. I understand that the waters of the Ganges River are so disgusting and polluted that you dare not go anywhere near the river lest you become ill with an indescribably vicious wasting disease. I know that the ravenous corruption that runs through the government/bureaucracy that is the structure of the country is impenetrable: I really don't need to hear that much more about it. On the whole, however, I would vastly recommend Shantaram over this book. I found it immediately interesting, full of characters that grabbed me and plots that took me happily careening from one state of India to the next. My interest in Shantaram almost never failed, and that is saying a good deal, as I usually have trouble approaching four-volume tomes. Take my advice here, though. As a average American, I found Shantaram to be wildly entertaining and informative when compared to White Tiger. I cannot recommend White Tiger to anyone but the most sophisticated student of the subcontinent, a person who delights in being entertained by something which I find to be rather less than a novel, and more like an expansive, reportorial description of the daily life of the lower castes in India.

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49 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great, informative tale

Excellent story and narration. Gripping story of the life of the other side of India. Keeps your attention and reveals a great tale of the interaction between rich and poor and the failures of the government. If you liked the
"Kite Runner" you'll love this book as well.

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37 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant

Part Dostoevsky, part Frantz Fanon, part Baudelaire, all original. The writing is just great: spare but incredibly evocative. And it's beautifully performed as well.

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32 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Read the book!

I was unable to even get through the first chapter of this narration! The narrator has a fake Indian accent, so if you are an Indian don't even come close to this audio book. It is absolutely annoying to listen to this Lee. I can not believe that this is an Indian story written by an Indian Author and narrated by an impostor! The most common words like 'Ganga' and 'Ghar' are pronounced wrong. Even though the story seemed wonderful I had to stop listening. It really makes me wonder what is the process of choosing a narrator for audio books and whether the author is even aware that this narrator is castrating the story with his unbelievable accent and pronunciations!!! I would definitely want a refund!

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31 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful Indian Booker Prize Winner

I loved this audiobook. The reader has a wonderful Indian accent (although he's an actor, not Indian) and the book is funnier and more human in the audio form than on the page. I have the book, too, but I prefer the audiobook version. It deserved the Booker. A wonderful portrait of the gritty underside of Indian society and corruption. I had wanted to visit Indian, but have decided against it. The book is amazingly honest--unlike The Kite Runner, say, which seemed sentimental to me. This is one of the best novels of the past twenty-five years.

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28 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent writing and narration!

Since it won the Booker prize, you can pretty much expect that the writing is stellar. The topic is current, real, and TOTALLY believable. With the recent plethora of superb Indian writers, this is one not to be missed. For Audible listeners though, let's talk about narration. John Lee is becoming, for me, enough of a reason to listen to a book. - ANY book. His Indian accent is "spot on" and his reading sublime. If you enjoyed the narration of Pillars of the Earth and World Without End you will be even more impressed when you hear this. I guarantee it!! In only eight hours, you get a listen totally worth your time and money. I can't recommend this book and the narration highly enough. It's a MUST!!!

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27 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

download the other version

Lee is a great narrator but not for this book. In fact, he got in the way--I kept thinking, "That's John Lee trying to speak Indian-English..."

Even so, this is a very satisfying, entertaining and informative listen about the shadow side of India's economic growth, with a catchy set up: A long memo from a dubious Indian entrepreneur who clawed his way from village life, written to the Premier of China (like the Chinese premier, the White Tiger says if he was building a country, he'd put in the infrastructure first, then the democracy)

This is very unlike Rohinton Mistry's quiet excellent novels set in India or Arundhati Roy's God of Small Things. If Q+A/Slumdog Millionaire was like an Indian Dickens, then White Tiger is like Kurt Vonnegut spinning a tragicomedy of the cumulative effects of caste and class meeting globalization and westernization in the "rooster coop" pecking order of India. An interesting study of how an author can make an unlikable character sympathetic.

This is a novel that raises moral questions that will ring in your mind long after you've finished listening.

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25 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

The narrator is complacent and grossly overrated

Why assign a book on Indian theme to a narrator who does not care to learn how to pronounce some important Indian words. The task of pronouncing correctly is not difficult. Get a list of foreign words in the book and sit with a knowledeable person to learn how to pronounce them. Now let me illustrate the sloppy reading in this book with an example.

The most sacred river in India - In English - it is known as "The Ganges" and Indians have always called it "Ganga" for centuries as in this book. Lee pronounces "Ganga" as "Gunja" meaning bald, one without hairs, this changing the meaning dramatically. He does this several times to great annoyance of the listener and enormous disservice to non-Indian listeners who may think that there is a "Gunja" river somewhere. And I wonder Mr Lee who reads so many books in a year and makes a living out of reading books, why is he so complacent and sloppy. And I also am preplexed why listeners over-rate him saying he is a great reader?

We the listener must be more crirical of mis-pronounciation. You would not print a book with misspelling. Why should you tolerate a book with words mispronounced. In case of this book, I rarely can site an Indian word which Lee gets right. I hold the publisher, the author (who should have listened to the book) and to some extent the audible listner community who sets lower standard for correct pronounciation and accepts sloppiness.

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25 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Definitely deserved the Booker Prize

The White Tiger is in the form of a first-person narrative written in a letter to the Chinese premier. The narrator (known as The White Tiger) relates how he rose from being a poor, lower caste Indian to the driver for a wealthy family, from a wanted murderer to a Bangalore entrepreneur. Full of insights into life in modern-day India, his story is sad, funny, witty, shocking--you name it. All told in a fascinating voice. John Lee was an extraordinary reader.

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25 people found this helpful