Overview

Searing. Explosive. Lyrical. Compassionate. Here is the astonishing new novel by the Man Booker Prize-winning author of The White Tiger, a book that took rage and anger at injustice and turned it into a thrilling murder story. Now, with the same fearlessness and insight, Aravind Adiga broadens his canvas to give us a riveting story of money and power, luxury and deprivation, set in the booming city of Mumbai.
At the heart of this novel are two equally compelling men, poised for a showdown. Real estate developer Dharmen Shah rose from nothing to create an empire and hopes to seal his legacy with a building named the Shanghai, which promises to be one of the city's most elite addresses. Larger-than-life Shah is a dangerous man to refuse. But he meets his match in a retired schoolteacher called Masterji. Shah offers Masterji and his neighbors--the residents of Vishram Society's Tower A, a once respectable, now crumbling apartment building on whose site Shah's luxury high-rise would be built--a generous buyout. They can't believe their good fortune. Except, that is, for Masterji, who refuses to abandon the building he has long called home. As the demolition deadline looms, desires mount; neighbors become enemies, and acquaintances turn into conspirators who risk losing their humanity to score their payday.
Here is a richly told, suspense-fueled story of ordinary people pushed to their limits in a place that knows none: the new India as only Aravind Adiga could explore--and expose--it. Vivid, visceral, told with both humor and poignancy, Last Man in Tower is his most stunning work yet.

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Reviews from the UK: <br> [Adiga's] terrific first novel White Tiger deservedly won the Man Booker Prize. This one is even better. The whole of Mumbai comes under his microscope in the tale of a middle-class apartment block in a slummy area--and what happens when a property tycoon bribes the various inhabitants to leave. The result is as well-paced as any crime story, but so much more. Every one of the huge cast of characters is brilliantly drawn. I'm aghast with admiration. There is no one writing fiction as good as this in Britain or America. <br>--A. N. Wilson, Reader's Digest (UK) <br> Eagerly awaited . . . A richly evoked, Dickensian world that explores the chasm between rich and poor, the venal and the incorruptible, and the narrative is studded with delightful epiphanies. . . . [Real estate developer] Dharmen Shah is a magnificent creation. The archetypal self-made man, he is a monument to human greed . . . His relationship with buildings is visceral: he loves the s

As with The White Tiger, [in Last Man in Tower ] Adiga describes an India that is avaricious, acquisitive and insecure. His earlier work told the story of a desperate, rural poverty; Last Man in Tower depicts a genteel middle-class impoverishment of imagination and hope. Whether it is through the fight for water or the battle to board the commuter trains, Mr. Adiga captures with heartbreaking authenticity the real struggle in Indian cities, which is for dignity. A funny yet deeply melancholic work, Last Man in Tower is a brilliant, and remarkably mature, second novel. A rare achievement. <br>-- The Economist <br>From the UK: <br> Magnificent . . . A richly evoked, Dickensian world that explores the chasm between rich and poor, the venal and the incorruptible . . . Adiga succeeds in giving a voice and a sense of humor to the powerless. . . . All human life--and longing--is here. Marvelous stuff. <br>--Sebastian Shakespeare, The Tatler <br> As well-paced as any cr

Reviews from the UK: <br> Dharmen Shah [is] the property developer villain of Adiga's second novel [whose] latest plan is to buy out the Vishram society, a housing co-operative near slum-land south of Mumbai's airport, and to redevelop it into a stack of luxury apartments. An Ayn Rand-ish ubermensch, Shah has already built a development called the Fountainhead as part of his booming construction empire in Mumbai . . . Opposing Shah is a group of residents for whom the old tumbledown building represents more than land value. This skillfully directed ensemble cast gives Adiga access to a range of voices and experiences, from the blind woman who navigates the old building by touch, to the destitute cleaning girl who fears for her job, to the mercenary secretary who just wants a little baksheesh. . . . Last Man in Tower is a timely parable for the age of the property bubble and the vanity redevelopment project. Set in a city where the world's first billion-dollar skyscraper home off

Author Information

Aravind Adigais the author of The White Tiger, which was awarded the 2008 Man Booker Prize, and a collection of stories, Between the Assassinations. He was born in India and attended Columbia and Oxford universities. He is a former correspondent for Time magazine whose work has also appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, The Sunday Times (London), and the Financial Times, among other publications. He lives in India.

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