• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (July 26, 2005)
• Language: English

Vikas Swarup, a first time novelist is an Indian diplomat and Q&A is his first novel.  The book is being translated into eighteen languages and is due to be made into a film.

Q&A by Vikas Swarup is the story of how an illiterate waiter Ram Mohammed Thomas from Mumbai wins the one billion rupee jackpot in the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and is promptly arrested for cheating.  The novel unfolds as he reviews the videotapes with his lawyer, telling her how, growing up an orphan boy, he came by the crucial wisdom and trivia that enabled him to sail through the quiz show without a single pass.  It reads a little like a fable, is rigorously logical, and gives us a dark and witty picture of humanity in all its guises.

 
Each chapter characterizes each level that he moves into the quiz show. The premise is ingenious and is certainly intriguing. A gorgeous whirlwind of a drama Rich with the atmosphere of the Indian politic, films and the social milieu of India, it entertains with a cast of irresistible characters but sadly lacks the ability to impress as a literary treat.

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