His master's voice

摘要

Ploughing through a novel a day for nearly six months, the judges of the Man Booker prize, Britain's premier award for fiction, quickly make two discoveries: that most books start well and then sink halfway through, and that almost all the novels soon sound the same. So a new voice is as welcome, and as rare, as a fine ending. Which is why all five judges wanted AravindAdiga's first novel to be on this year's shortlist, announced on September 9th. And what a singular voice he has.rn"The White Tiger" takes the form of a series of letters to Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier. Balram Halwai, the Bangalore businessman who writes the letters, wants to tell the Chinese premier something about how life really is in India: not the pink sari of the tourist trail (pink is India's navy blue) or the sentimental imagery of the poor, doe-eyed children. Balram believes that poverty is so corrupting it produces monsters; he should know for he is such a monster himself.