Looking for a good holiday read?

If you have ever been to India and fallen in love with the sights and sounds of Bombay, then I heartily recommend you read Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts.



A great holiday read at nearly 930 pages, it is based on the author's own lifestory, the tale of a bank-robbing, money-laundering, slum-dwelling Australian and his love for Bombay. I'm not normally a fan of crime-based semi-autobiographies, especially as a holiday read, but I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a book on holiday as thoroughly as this since Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy.



Robert's storytelling is magical and evocative; the colours and descriptions of Bombay life leap off the page in a whirl of jewel-like flashes and a clash of cymbals, all set to the blaring soundtrack of a tinny transistor radio playing the latest Bollywood hit song.



By turns an adventure story, philosophical muse and tale of love, it should easily last you a few days by the pool, and if you're not fortunate enough to be off backpacking round India soon, you can can really get a taste for the heat and dust and smell and clamour of one of the world's most lively cities without having to move too far from the kettle....