The White Tiger
By Aravind Adiga
Atlantic Books £7.99, 321 pages
FT Bookshop price: £6.39

Packaged as a series of missives to the Chinese premier, this rollicking confession charts the rise of Balram from wily son of a rural rickshaw-puller to outlaw entrepreneur in Bangalore’s economic boom.

Balram becomes a driver for Ashok, a gentle scion of the generally brutal landlord class, whose family is zealously bribing ministers in a massive tax fraud. When the family frames Balram for the death of a street child killed by Ashok’s drunk wife, Balram’s indignation at the injustice, corruption and brutally enforced servitude of Indian society hardens into a ruthless argument for murder.

Springing from his master’s venality, Balram’s crime gives a playful circularity to Adiga’s zesty debut novel, which won last year’s Man Booker Prize. With strong, sympathetic characters, a swell of political unrest and an entertaining plot, the book rattles along at top speed under Balram’s chirpy navigation.