Sacred Games (novel)

Infobox Book |
name = Sacred Games


image_caption =
author = Vikram Chandra
country = India/USA
language = English
genre = Novels
publisher = HarperCollins
release_date = 2007
media_type = Print (Hardcover)
pages = 928pp
isbn = ISBN 0061130354

"Sacred Games" is a book by Vikram Chandra published in 2006. It has received [http://vikramchandra.com/Default.aspx?tabid=133 notable reviews.] Patricia Lay Brown in " [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/books/10chan.html?pagewanted=1&8dpc&_r=1 The New York Times] " writes:

:"The Dickensian sweep of Bombay, as Vikram Chandra prefers to call the city — the cops on the take, the slums patrolled by mobsters, the whores turned Bollywood starlets, the headboards in million-dollar co-ops that slide away at the touch of a button to reveal hundreds of thousands in hidden rupees — is itself a protagonist in "Sacred Games", Mr. Chandra’s long-awaited 900-page novel (excluding glossary) just published by HarperCollins.

Plot summary

"Sacred Games" combines the ambition of a 19th-century social novel with a cops-and-Bhais detective thriller. (Bhai is a Hindi and Gujarati slang term for gangster.)

As sprawling as the heat-drenched city it richly portrays, "Sacred Games" delves into many emotionally charged worlds of contemporary India, in particular the spidery links between organized crime, local politics and Indian espionage that lie below the shimmering surfaces of its economic renaissance. Money and corruption form the golden thread. In interweaving narratives and voices, "Sacred Games" takes on even larger themes, from the wrenching violence of the 1947 partition of India to the specter of nuclear terrorism.

Publication History

The book earned Chandra a million dollar advance from HarperCollins. The initial print run was 200,000 copies. However, sales were somewhat disappointing and it is estimated that the advance lost $655,750 [ [http://nymag.com/news/media/50279/index7.html Have We Reached the End of Publishing as We Know it?] ] .

ee also

*Frequently Quoted Bollywood Songs
*Shantaram (novel)
*Maximum City

External links

* [http://www.salon.com/books/review/2007/02/05/chandra/index.html Review/interview] Salon.com