I thought the book started off really well and had a lot of promise but after 500-odd pages, the story began to read like a Hindi movie script. Also, the most disheartening part was that in an interview of Roberts’, it mentioned that Karla was a fictional character. A pity since she really was intriguing along with Madam Zhou! That kind of really put me off since most of the plot centered around her. The part about him in Afghanistan was also rather exaggerated. Anyway, keeping in mind that it was a work of fiction based on facts, it was a marathon read that kept me engrossed for the entire 2 weeks it took me to get through it. I’m really looking forward to it becoming a movie – I believe Johnny Depp will play Shantaram. Wow! Overall, I wouldn’t recommend the book to anyone who’s time bound - the rest, read on...especially if you’re on a 15 hr non-stop flight!