Welcome to the Reader's Den! This month's online book discussion will be The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga. Feel free to participate and make comments.

Aravind Adiga was born in Madras, India in 1974. In high school, he and his family immigrated to Australia. Later, he studied at Columbia and Oxford Universities and published his first novel, The White Tiger, in 2008.

The White Tiger received the Man Booker prize for 2008, an esteemed accomplishment for a first time author. Adiga was also a correspondent for Time magazine and has also written for the Financial Times, the Independent and the Sunday Times. The White Tiger tells the story of a young Indian man named Balram Halwai, who makes it of the "darkness" by brutally killing his rich master. The story takes place over the course of seven days while Balram, the son of a poor rickshaw puller from a small village in Bihar India, writes daily letters to the Premier of China, Wen Jiabao. In these letters, Balram tells his deepest, darkest secrets and how he came to be an entrepreneurial success. We learn that Balram murdered his master, Ashok and stole a great deal of money in order to get where he is today. He justifies his wrongdoings by rationalizing that it is the unfairness of the Indian society that forced him to do it. Told in a sardonic wit, The White Tiger will make you laugh, while also revealing the corruption of both the rich and the poor and give readers a look at the many sides of modern Indian life.

Reserve your copy of The White Tiger through The New York Public Library Catalog or at your local branch. The discussion will take place over the next four weeks. I look forward to hearing from all of you!