Vikas Swarup has broken that rule that says to write about what you know. Swarup, the publisher tells us, "is an Indian diplomat who has served in Turkey, the United States, Ethiopia, and Great Britain... [and] currently works in the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi." Q&A is a first novel and is a winner. It is winning since it is being translated into 18 languages and is upcoming as a film (Hollywood with an "H" or a "B", I wonder). It won my award — I read it, finished it, and enjoyed it and the discussions with my wife who did the same. Bingo!

Our hero is not of the world of the Indian diplomatic corps. He is the character we learn about and may love or not love. He made me so mad in one chapter that I dropped the book for a week because I knew he would disappoint me. The little bugger had earned some money and was robbed because he acted like a stupid and very young boy. Finally I remembered he was a very young boy — so very much younger than we can believe because he is a boy of the streets, poor and orphaned, living on his wits and staying just ahead of starvation and worse. Not only that but, since I was once one of them — boys, that is — they are inherently stupid on certain occasions such as showing off to other boys and pretty girls. So he did and paid for it. And I, realizing I was punishing myself needlessly, returned to the pleasure of the story of Ram Mohammed Thomas.

So this is our hero. He is named for a Christian, Hindu and Muslim - he is the ecumenical world that could bring peace. There is a story there. You will enjoy it but I am not going to tell it to you. Read it for yourself. Swarup writes stories like a 1001 nights. Each question from the TV quiz show on which he is a contestant is a story, a long story, a good story, a story of India and Indian culture, of boys and boy-culture, of mankind and human culture.