Shantaram

As Lin trains in the book business with Ghani, he makes himself new passports and identities. After a business trip to Zaire, He tours the slum with Qasim. People are prepping for the monsoon, and Johnny is prepping a stage for his wedding.

While meeting with Lisa at the movie studio, a movie producer named Chandra Mehta asks Lin for help. He has a friend who needs money from the black market. After they talk, the movie people talk Lin into sitting for a scene as an extra, even though Lin knows it might lead to his being recognized.

Lisa asks about Tariq as they ride back to her place on Lin’s bike. Lin is lonely, and he misses him. He has money and passports but nowhere to go. Lisa invites him in, and he resists. She calls two hours later and says she can’t find Abdullah. She says she killed Maurizio. Lin drives to Lisa’s home.

Maurizio has a knife in his back when Lin arrives. Ulla has a cut on her face. After Abdullah arrives back at Lisa’s apartment, he calms Lisa, and they contact Hassaan for help with the body. Ulla says that Modena had given her stolen money. Maurizio came to the hotel to get it and then tortured Modena. Unable to find the money, he left to find Abdullah at Lisa’s place.

Ulla tells the group what happened. Modena had met the Nigerian who wanted to spend 60,000 on heroin. Maurizio then stole the money from the Nigerians, but Modena took the money back and hid, which made the Nigerians, assuming Maurizio still had the money, send hitmen to Mumbai to find Maurizio. Maurizio gave them Lin’s name to distract them while hunting for Modena to clear his name. Maurizio kidnapped Ulla and watched her for weeks, waiting for contact from Modena. When Modena got there, Maurizio tied him up and tortured him for the money, but Modena never revealed where it was. Ulla fled with the cash. She is ashamed that she left him for hotel staff to discover, but Modena lived.

Ulla gives Lin the money as Hassaan arrives. He takes the body but refuses payment, saying that he has now paid his debt to Lin. Abdullah arranges for men to clean the apartment. Over the following weeks, Lin is haunted by the image of Ulla leaving Modena tied to the bed, disfigured and conscious.

One day, Prabu visits Lin at Leopold’s. He is worried that he is too short to be sexually attractive to Parvati. Lin says that Prabu is one of the biggest men he has ever met because he has no hate. Lin then visits Anand at Arthur Road Prison. Anand looks well. Lin says they can try to help him, but Anand wants his punishment. He deserves the consequences of committing the slum’s first murder. If Lin helps him, the murder will be meaningless. He makes Lin promise to stop helping and not to return. Lin realizes that he envies Anand’s peace, despite his imprisonment.

Lin hires dancers for Prabu’s wedding. He gives Johnny $5,000 to buy a hut from which he cannot be evicted, in addition to buying Prabu the deed to his taxi.

Lettie gives Lin the blindfold that he placed on her at the train station, along with Karla’s address in Goa. Lin works harder than ever to distract himself, including taking lengthy trips to Kinshasa and Singapore.

Kavita arrives on the movie set and asks to speak with Lin. She says Abdullah is on a police hit list. They think he is Sapna. Lisa and Lin leave to find Abdullah. At Leopold’s, Didier says that the police shot Abdullah an hour ago after he opened fire on them. Lin tries to drive to the market where Abdullah was killed. He fights his way through a riot that is happening at the market, only to learn that the crowd took Abdullah’s body.

Back at Leopold’s, Johnny says Prabu was in an accident. A cart filled with steel got loose from its pullers and hit Prabu’s taxi, killing his passengers. Prabu’s jaw is gone, and the doctors say he will die. At the hospital, Lin sees Parvati, Qasim, Sita, and Jeetendra. Prabu’s face is gone. Lin dreams of Sunder at Prabu’s bedside. Prabu dies four days later. As Prabu’s mother cuts her hair in mourning, Lin thinks about how much he loves Prabu and how much it hurts.

Lin pays three months’ rent on his apartment and allows himself to follow Lisa into addiction. While he is high each day, he mourns Prabu and wonders if Abdullah had been Sapna. Lin describes the feeling of heroin as surrendering everything, including love. Abdullah had no funeral—there was no body. Lin helped carry Prabu’s body and watched it burn. Ghani is on holiday. Khaled is in Palestine. The council and their lieutenants are gone.

He blames Khan for abandoning the city. A man once told Khan that fate gives everyone three great teachers: “three teachers, three friends, three enemies, and three great friends” (632). They never know which is which, however. Lin now sees him as an enemy.

After three months, Nazeer arrives and orders him to come with him. Lin has lost 30 pounds of muscle. Nazeer knocks him out and takes him, by taxi, to a house where Karla is waiting. She cares for him briefly and then says she’ll be back in six weeks. Before she leaves, she bets Nazeer $1,000 that Lin can go through withdrawals successfully without tapering down.

When he wakes again, Khan is there. Lin asks about Abdullah. His enemies—the men from Iran who fought with Abdullah in the street—made the police think he was Sapna. Khan says the real Sapna is dead now. He also says that when Lin is well, he wants his help with a smuggling mission in Afghanistan.

After two weeks, the worst is over, although Nazeer must tie him to the bed when the pain overwhelms Lin. Nazeer begins teaching Lin to ride a horse in preparation for Afghanistan. Nazeer is astonished at how badly Lin rides, but he improves during three months of practice and exercise.

One day, he sees Vikram riding, wearing his black cowboy hat. He, Lettie, and Lisa now own shares in the movie property. Vikram gives Lin his lucky hat. When Lin returns to his apartment, Karla is there. Lin and Karla have sex, but she still won’t say she loves him. He says he’ll stay if she says she loves him. She says she doesn’t, and can’t, and won’t, before leaving in a taxi.