Stuff
Product Details
Scribner, July 2005
Hardcover, 336 pages
ISBN-10: 0743267478
ISBN-13: 9780743267472
Description
Vikas Swarup's spectacular debut novel opens in a jail cell in Mumbai, India, where Ram Mohammad Thomas is being held after correctly answering all twelve questions on India's biggest quiz show, Who Will Win a Billion? It is hard to believe that a poor orphan who has never read a newspaper or gone to school could win such a contest. But through a series of exhilarating tales Ram explains to his lawyer how episodes in his life gave him the answer to each question.
Ram takes us on an amazing review of his own history -- from the day he was found as a baby in the clothes donation box of a Delhi church to his employment by a faded Bollywood star to his adventure with a security-crazed Australian army colonel to his career as an overly creative tour guide at the Taj Mahal.
Swarup's Q & A is a beguiling blend of high comedy, drama, and romance that reveals how we know what we know -- not just about trivia, but about life itself. Cutting across humanity in all its squalor and glory, Vikas Swarup presents a kaleidoscopic vision of the struggle between good and evil -- and what happens when one boy has no other choice in life but to survive.
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Browse Inside Q & A"It was an inspired idea by Vikas Swarup to write Q & A...A broad and sympathetic humanity underpins the whole book."
-- The Sunday Telegraph, London
"Vikas Swarup weaves a delightful yarn. With an easy style, Q & A is sweet, sorrowful and funny. An enchanting tale."
-- The Sunday Tribune, India
"This page-turning novel reels from farce to melodrama to fairy tale."
-- You Magazine, London
"A very clever story told very cleverly and at a relentless pace."
-- The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
"Swarup is an accomplished storyteller, and Q & A has all the immediacy and impact of an oral account."
-- Daily Mail, London
"[A] rare, seemingly effortless brew of humour, drama, romance and social realism...Swarup...has achieved a triumph with this thrilling, endearing work which gets into the heart and soul of modern India."
-- The New Zealand Herald
"Q & A is that rare novel that chugs along on the parallel tracks of being a rollicking read as well as being a polished, varnished, finished work of impressive craftsmanship."
-- Hindustan Times, India
Yahoo! India, December 6, 2009
...digit lakhs," she says, refusing to quote exact numbers. The film will release in 2011. Author of Q & A Vikas Swarup could never have imagined that the adaption of his novel would turn into a blockbuster like Slumdog Millionaire . He is ...
Diplomat Vikas Swarup to speak on his novel Q&A turned movie Slumdog Millionaire at National Library
Dep. of Arts & Culture, August 26, 2009
...Mr Vikas Swarup, the outgoing Deputy High Commissioner of India to South Africa and author of the world acclaimed novel, Q & A will speak at a public lecture. The lecture is ...
Stayton Mail, July 30, 2009
...to the detriment of the story. One example is the movie 'Slumdog Millionaire,' based on a book called 'Q & A,' by Vikas Swarup. The London Sunday Telegraph called it 'an inspired idea by Vikas Swarup. ? A broad and sympathetic humanity ...
IAfrica.com, June 19, 2009
...Vikas Swarup may have penned a small novel that swept the globe, winning accolades and turning out an Oscar darling film, but the Indian diplomat to South Africa sees his success ...
IAfrica.com, May 28, 2009
...Vikas Swarup may have penned a small novel that swept the globe, winning accolades and turning out an Oscar darling film, but the Indian diplomat to South Africa sees his success ...
Regina Leader-Post, May 20, 2009
...âI am an accidental writer,â says Vikas Swarup from his office in Durban. And, indeed, there surely was happenstance at play when Swarup, a career diplomat and Indiaâs current high commissioner to South Africa, decided to write ...
Tonight South Africa, May 20, 2009
...Cape Town - Vikas Swarup may have penned a small novel that swept the globe, winning accolades and turning out an Oscar darling film, but the Indian diplomat to South Africa sees his success ...
CHINAdaily, May 20, 2009
...CAPE TOWN - Vikas Swarup may have penned a small novel that swept the globe, winning accolades and turning out an Oscar darling film, but the Indian diplomat to South Africa While the publicity ...
The Middle East, May 20, 2009
...Vikas Swarup may have penned a small novel that swept the globe, winning accolades and turning out an Oscar darling film, but the Indian diplomat to South Africa sees his success ...
National Post, May 15, 2009
...of the Books pages in Weekend Post. Each week she provides an overview of the week's offerings. Vikas Swarup, the career bureaucrat whose first novel, Q & A, was transmogrified for the big screen as Slumdog Millionaire, recently talked to ...
New York Times, April 2, 2009
...director turn his mid-list book into a movie that wins the best-picture Academy award and seven other Oscars. Vikas Swarup at a book signing session in Hong Kong. The recent career trajectory of Vikas Swarup is nearly as preposterous as the ...
Helium, March 29, 2009
...The original story of this movie based on a novel named Q &A, written by an Indian Diplomat Vikas Swarup. It was author's very first novel and earned him the Boeke Prize (South-Africa), 2006 and also the Prix Grand Public prize (Paris Book ...
PRWeb, March 4, 2009
...the most for any film this year, including Best Picture and Best Director. Adapted from the award-winning novel Q & A by Vikas Swarup. Message Stick by Laine Cunningham. In this suspense thriller, Gabriel Branch searches the outback for his ...
Now Running, February 28, 2009
...Videos | Synopsis | Discussions | Gallery | New Delhi, Feb 27 (IANS) Special copies of Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup's book, which was adapted for the eight-Oscar winning film 'Slumdog Millionaire', has been auctioned online to raise funds ...
The Hindu, February 20, 2009
... New Delhi (PTI): Diplomat Vikas Swarup, on whose debut novel Oscar-nominated film Slumdog Millionaire is based, may not use an India setting in his next book. 'I am still conceptualising my third book which, for ...
ONE News, February 12, 2009
...Read our review and enter to win a copy of Vikas Swarup's book, Slumdog Millionaire. Vikas Swarup must be sitting on top of the world right now. The film adaptation of his best-selling novel is the darling of the awards ...
Indian News Link, January 25, 2009
...Career diplomat and author Vikas Swarup, whose blockbuster Q & A is the latest rage, attends Jaipur Literary Fest. IANS report He is no 'Slumdog Millionaire', and neither is he the street-smart protagonist of this ...
NewKerala.com, January 16, 2009
...Lucknow, Jan 16 : 'Never judge a book by its movie' may hold true in most cases but for Vikas Swarup, it is certainly not that way as the sales of his novel 'Q & A', on which 'Slumdog Millionaire' is based, has rocketed in the state capital ...
Mature Times, January 15, 2009
...Slumdog Millionaire, the oxymoronic title of Danny Boyle?s (Trainspotting, the Beach) new movie, based on Vikas Swarup?s novel, Q & A, has been such a hit that the publishers have re-issued the book with the film?s ?punchier? title. The ...
Calcutta Telegraph, January 12, 2009
...of the Golden Globes by Slumdog has set Hollywood abuzz that the film adaptation of a best-selling novel, Q & A, by Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup is likely to be the hot favourite at this year's Oscar ceremonies. Swarup told The Telegraph in ...
The Hindu, January 2, 2009
... New Delhi (PTI) : Vikas Swarup is a happy man now that the film adaptation of his debut novel 'Q and A' has turned into a international success and hopes to get an invite to ...
