Length: 43 hrs 2mins

This is the story, or recollection of stories about an Australian man that apparently was in jail … in Australia, escaped that jail, went on the run and found himself in India.

Does wonders to dispel the stereotype that Australians are convicts, right?

Trying to leave behind his criminal life and adamant about starting afresh he makes a new life for himself in India, but inevitably crime finds him again.  This story is about this man’s adventures, trials and tribulations since getting to India, the lessons he learnt, friends made and colourful characters he came across.

Now that all sounds quite interesting until one time whilst you’re listening to it you decide to find out more about this author for which you’ve been led to believe it telling you a giant chapter of his life from true recollections of what he experienced, yet you find out its only a story.

However the way that he makes it out is that everything that happened….truly happened.  In believing everything is true to form you make a powerful connection with him as well as the characters he introduces, and it creates a world of intrigue….but knowing that it’s just a narrative of construction or of great embellishment, belittles the adventure that is life or what life can be and tears apart those connections pretty quickly.

Also, it turns out that Johnny Depp is a huge fan of this book and of this writer, which now gives it a douche-bagish element.

This whole realisation, … not necessarily the Johnny Depp thing… means that it’s one of the few books that I didn’t finish.

This has nothing to do with the narration; Humphrey Bower’s performance is great and makes you feel like you could actually be there.  All the accents and ways of speaking were pretty good. His natural Australian voice give a relaxed air to the story, much like other Australian books I’ve listened too.  You can also feel the temperature of the India summers just in the relaxed way he speaks, much like Australia in that regard.

It’s not a book that I actually want to return, because it IS interesting, and at times it IS enjoyable, but there’s just so many great books out there, that I feel this just doesn’t warrant my listening time, especially when you know about the embellished nature of the book.

That being said, if you’re into that kind of thing, and know it going in, then you can appreciate it for the great narrative that it is.

To listen to a preview clip, & see what others said about the book, click here: http://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/Shantaram-Audiobook/B00GT1240I

Or if you want to take it as 1 of your 2 free audiobooks via the audible trial…..  mmm but I wouldn’t recommend it.

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Happy listening!

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