The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga

A darkly funny fictional autobiography showing the violent consequences of the emergence of a "half-baked" caste of partly educated men whose ambitions are thwarted by institutionalised inequalities and endemic corruption in Indian society. It is really disturbing in places - I was horrified by the price at which the narrator's freedom has been bought. There are also some fascinating contradictions - his violent rage is brought on, not by the casual harshness with which he is accustomed to be treated, but by the glimpse of a different way of looking at his situation offered by his employer's wife's obvious feelings of guilt towards him. The final anecdote, showing how he has shaped a different future while working within the corrupt system, is particularly brilliant and thought-provoking.