shopping cart
Save up to 30% on our Staff Picks
Call us:  800-878-7323 HELP
McAfee SECURE helps keep you safe from identity theft, credit card fraud, spyware, spam, viruses and online scams.
Original Essays | September 23, 2009

Jonathan Lethem: IMG Stops: On Those Things My New Novel Forgot to Be About, Maybe



For me, there's a weird, unfathomable gulf — I almost wrote gulp — between the completion of a novel and its publication. Some days this duration feels interminable, as though the book has... Continue »
  1. $19.56 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

    Chronic City

    Jonathan Lethem

Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$15.00
New Trade Paper
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
Qty Store Section
2 Burnside Literature- A to Z
3 Hawthorne Literature- A to Z
25 Local Warehouse Literature- A to Z
13 Remote Warehouse Literature- A to Z

More copies of this ISBN:

Q & A

by Vikas Swarup

Q & A Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

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.

Review:

"[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

Review:

"This page-turning novel reels from farce to melodrama to fairy tale." You Magazine (UK)

Review:

"Vikas Swarup weaves a delightful yarn. With an easy style, Q & A is sweet, sorrowful and funny. An enchanting tale." The Sunday Tribune (India)

Review:

"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)

About the Author

Vikas Swarup is an Indian diplomat who has served in Turkey, the United States, Ethiopia, and Great Britain. Q & A, his first novel, is being translated into eighteen languages and is due to be made into a film. Swarup currently works in the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi.

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
lupoman, February 9, 2009 (view all comments by lupoman)
This book was a fast and very enjoyable read. The movie "Slumdog Millionaire" is loosely based on the book, and both movie and book are written well, although the two stories are very different. I liked the ending to the book much better, and the movie has won many awards so far, including the Golden Globe Best Picture. A must read for 2009, you'll thank me later. 5 stars
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(3 of 4 readers found this comment helpful)

Product Details

ISBN:
9780743267489
Author:
Swarup, Vikas
Publisher:
Scribner Book Company
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
General Fiction
Subject:
Poor
Subject:
Waiters
Subject:
Psychological fiction
Subject:
Billionaires
Edition Description:
Trade paper
Publication Date:
August 2008
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
318
Dimensions:
8 x 5.25 in

Other books you might like

  1. $10.50 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    Midnight's Children

    Salman Rushdie
  2. $2.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    Millions

    Frank Cottrel Boyce
  3. $3.88 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    Life of Pi

    Yann Martel
  4. $11.50 Used Hardcover add to wish list
  5. $12.50 Used Hardcover add to wish list

    The Hunger Games

    Suzanne Collins
  6. $7.50 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    Brave New World (P.S.)

    Aldous Huxley

Related Aisles

  • back to top

Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.