Shantaram Forum

Gregory David Roberts

Shantaram weaves a story around the character Lin, who escapes from prison in Australia and begins a journey that takes him to New Zealand and further afield to Mumbai, where the majority of the story takes place. This part of the book closely follows the factual account given by Gregory David Roberts about his own escape from prison. The rest of Shantaram is then an exploration of life as Greg experienced in the city, and much of the key parts of the book are taken directly out of Greg’s own life.

Greg was a promising young student writer, and whose life was set on a sliding path after he split from his family, resulting in his descent into Heroin addiction and crime. Robbery was the means that fed the addiction in his life at this time, and he found himself in a top security prison. After hatching an escape from prison with a fellow inmate, Greg began another tremendous journey, and this is the point where Shantaram picks up that story with his arrival in Mumbai. It is surely a testament to Greg’s courage that he brought so much of his life into his work and allowed us to capture a part of him through his writing

It is worth pointing out however, that while the book is in part autobiographical (in the sense that Lin the main character Lin follows a journey and shares experiences that are similar to Greg’s life during that time) it is still a novel. Greg has indicated that characters in the book and certain events are an amalgamation of reality and the author’s creativity.

Greg is reported to now live in Mumbai. After having returned to Australia again as a prisoner, he spent the rest of his sentence completing Shantaram. In the process of his own decision to take redemption, Greg returned to be the person he set out to be from the beginning. If you’ve read the book, I’m sure you too support the kind of gentleman Greg has become.