Hugely popular when it was published in 2008 (it won the Man Booker prize) I successfully avoided this book until because I'm always wary of things that get a lot of hype. That and I'm slow and lazy. and in 2008 I was too busy perusing London's bar scene than I was the literature pages of newspapers. Anyway I finally read it and I found it as brilliant as it was disturbing. and as entertaining as it was utterly, stomach-wrenching saddening.

Written as a letter to the Chinese Prime Minister who is about to visit India, Balram Halawi takes it upon himself to introduce the Premier to what life is really like for an Indian entrepreneur. While it's clear very quickly that Balram is intended to amuse and appeal to the reader, it took me a lot longer to realise exactly what his story is about, but once that message was clear, it was uncomfortably hard to ignore. As it should be. But you don't want to stop reading because Balram stays funny thoughout and his plight is one you confusingly but without doubt root for.

I don't want to spoil the story for anyone who hasn't read it but let's just say that after finishing this book, I dreamt of India and in my dream the country was colourful and chaotic and the people were clean and kind. This surprised me because this is exactly not the India that Balram describes... and by all accounts he and the millions like him should know.