Product Details
Scribner, November 2008
Trade Paperback, 336 pages
ISBN-10: 1439136653
ISBN-13: 9781439136652
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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"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
AllAfrica.com, June 18, 2009
...Book: Slumdog Millionaire (First published as Q&A) Author: Vikas Swarup Publisher: Black Swan Books Volume: 382 pages In this year's Oscars' ceremony Slumdog Millionaire swept the board with eight awards. Based ...
NewsBlaze, June 4, 2009
...BBC Films and screenwriter John Hodge (Trainspotting) is planning to make about 16 million dollars film based on 'Slumdog Millionaire' author Vikas Swarup's second book 'Six Suspects', a Delhi (India)-set murder mystery. Welcoming the sudden ...
Calcutta Telegraph, June 3, 2009
...known that Boyle is an admirer of Maximum City and used it for background when he was shooting Slumdog Millionaire in Mumbai. He is on record as stating the book 'became my bible, really. I took it with me everywhere.' Boyle has also said ...
South African Government, June 3, 2009
...Mr Vikas Swarup, the outgoing Deputy High Commissioner of India to South Africa and author of the world acclaimed novel, Question and Answers will speak at a public lecture. The lecture is ...
Telegraph, June 3, 2009
...Danny Boyle, the director of Slumdog Millionaire, may make another film set in Mumbai after buying the movie rights for the book Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found. The Oscar-winner is reported to have acquired the ...
South African Government, June 2, 2009
...Mr Vikas Swarup, the outgoing Deputy High Commissioner of India to South Africa and author of the world acclaimed novel, Question and Answers will speak at a public lecture. The lecture is ...
Examiner.com, May 24, 2009
...After hearing of the continuing tragedy faced by the child stars of 'Slumdog Millionaire', it's nice to finally get some good news: a sequel is coming. . British producer Paul Raphael announced that production will begin next year on the ...
The Province, May 21, 2009
...Vikas Swarup, author of Q and A (Slumdog Millionaire) and Six Suspects. Photograph by: Aparna Swarup, National Post â??I am an accidental writer,â? says Vikas Swarup from his office in ...
National Post, May 16, 2009
...I recently spoke to Vikas Swarup, a diplomat turned writer whose debut novel Q and A was turned into the massive film Slumdog Millionaire. His second novel, Six Suspects, is now out in Canada. And ...
Guardian Unlimited, April 22, 2009
...000 copies there. His latest book, The Associate, is currently number two in India Today's bestsellers list. Vikas Swarup's Slumdog Millionaire currently tops the list. Chiki Sarkar, editorial director of Random House India, says the country ...
New York Times, March 27, 2009
...It has been written; now the authors behind the Academy Award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire are moving onto new writing assignments. In a news release, Minotaur Books, an imprint of the St. Martins Publishing Group, said it had acquired ...
Straits Times, March 11, 2009
...THE Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire is about a poor boy's rise to fortune on TV quiz show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?. Debater and diplomat Vikas Swarup (with wife Aparna) was born ...
USA Today, March 4, 2009
...Slumdog Millionaire the book hits USA TODAY's Top 150, romance is alive and well on our list, and there are two Great New Writers as chosen by Barnes & Noble ...
Mature Times, March 4, 2009
...suspects unravel before our eyes. Each is equally likely to have pulled the trigger. Inspired by actual events, Vikas Swarup's eagerly awaited second novel is both a riveting page turner and an insightful peek into the heart and soul of ...
CNN, February 4, 2009
... Vikas Swarup was far from the poverty of Mumbai when he wrote 'Slumdog Millionaire,' the book that has now become an award-winning movie and Academy Award nominee. As a high-ranking ...
The Hindu, January 31, 2009
...Writer and diplomat Vikas Swarup on his writing and his reactions to his debut novel, Q&A, being transformed into the hugely successful ?Slumdog Millionaire?. Photo: K. Murali Kumar Diplomatic to the core: Vikas Swarup ...
CNN, January 29, 2009
... Vikas Swarup was far from the poverty of Mumbai when he wrote 'Slumdog Millionaire,' the book that has now become an award-winning movie and Academy Award nominee. As a high-ranking ...
The Hindu, January 29, 2009
...novel. The Charlemagne Pursuit: Steve Berry, Rs. 295 Action-packed thriller from the bestselling author of ?The Venetian Betrayal.? Slumdog Millionaire: Vikas Swarup, Rs. 266 The international bestseller which has been made into a Danny ...
The Hindu, January 29, 2009
...Slumdog Millionaire author Vikas Swarup yearns for his Allahabadi lassi and Awadhi food Photo: Rajeev Bhatt Jackpot Writer-diplomat Vikas Swarup soaking in limelight Here is a writer who is not addicted ...
The Times South Africa, January 26, 2009
...SLUMDOG Millionaire continued its unlikely rise from low-budget underdog to the Hollywood heights, winning the Screen Actors Guild Award for best cast of a motion picture. Slumdog, the story of a ...
Hindustan Times, January 24, 2009
...He is no Slumdog Millionaire, and neither is he the street-smart protagonist of this year's favourite at the Golden Globes. Career diplomat-author Vikas Swarup, whose book Q And A has been made into ...
GG2.net, January 22, 2009
...THE DIPLOMAT-NOVELIST whose work was the basis of the award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire is heading home to India for the premier of the movie there. The film, about a young boy from the slums of Mumbai who wins a fortune in a ...
The Hindu, January 22, 2009
... Table for Two Slumdog Millionaire author Vikas Swarup yearns for his Allahabadi lassi and Awadhi food Photo: Rajeev Bhatt Here is a writer who is not addicted to tea or coffee. I know there ...
The Hindu, January 22, 2009
... Jaipur (IANS): He is no 'Slumdog Millionaire', and neither is he the street-smart protagonist of this year's favourite at the Golden Globes. Career diplomat-author Vikas Swarup, whose book 'Q And A' has been made into ...
Morecambe Bay Visitor, January 21, 2009
...IN the summer of 2003, Vikas Swarup, an Indian diplomat in London, was writing a book about a boy with no formal education, from the slums of Mumbai who goes on to a quiz show and ...
Economictimes, January 17, 2009
...NEW DELHI: Diplomat Vikas Swarup, whose novel was used as the basic story of the film Slumdog Millionaire, has an answer to all those crying Diplomat Vikas Swarup themselves hoarse about the 'negative' portrayal ...
Economictimes, January 17, 2009
...NEW DELHI: Diplomat Vikas Swarup, whose novel was used as the basic story of the film Slumdog Millionaire, has an answer to all those crying Diplomat Vikas Swarup themselves hoarse about the 'negative' portrayal ...
Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal, January 16, 2009
...JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - The diplomat-novelist whose work was the basis of the award-winning film 'Slumdog Millionaire' is heading home to India for the premiere of the movie there. The film, about a young boy from the slums of Mumbai ...
Kuwait Times, January 16, 2009
...By day Vikas Swarup is a high-flying Indian diplomat; night he's a bestselling author. And now Slumdog Millionaire, the film based on his first novel, has won four Golden Globes. When they ...
