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Sacred Games

3.92 of 5 stars 3.92 · rating details · 2,656 ratings · 473 reviews

Seven years in the making, Sacred Games is an epic of exceptional richness and power. Vikram Chandra's novel draws the reader deep into the life of Inspector Sartaj Singh--and into the criminal underworld of Ganesh Gaitonde, the most wanted gangster in India.

Sartaj, one of the very few Sikhs on the Mumbai police force, is used to being identified by his turban, beard and t...more

Hardcover, 916 pages

Published January 9th 2007 by Harper (first published 2006)

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May 02, 2013 Richard rated it 3 of 5 stars

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Seven years in the making, Sacred Games is an epic of exceptional richness and power. Vikram Chandra's novel draws the reader deep into the life of Inspector Sartaj Singh--and into the criminal underworld of Ganesh Gaitonde, the most wanted gangster in India.

Sartaj, one of the very few Sikhs on the Mumbai police force, is used to being identified by his turban, beard and the sharp cut of his trousers. But "the silky Sikh" is now past forty, his marriage is...more

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Aug 30, 2007 Maura Finkelstein rated it 5 of 5 stars

It took me a year to read this book. One year and exactly three days. At nine hundred pages, I spent 12 months considering how to approach the text, how to shrink it and put it in my pocket, my purse, comfortably under my arm. After 12 months I sat down, opened it, and proceeded to consume it in three days.
Sacred Games follows a Bombay police inspector and mafia Don: two men whose stories critically cross but only briefly meet. As the story unfolds, the list of characters grows to extreme propor...more

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Sep 05, 2007 Marc rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Dawood Ibrahim

So close . . . I almost loved this book, but somehow the whole was less than the sum of the (ample) parts. In the end, as much as I enjoyed each of the narratives, I didn't think that Chandra had the chops to integrate them, which is unfortunate since that seemed to be the whole point of the thing. Chandra gets massive points for ambition, but comes up short in the execution. The biggest problem is Chandra's inability (or, more charitably, disinclination) to vary his narrative voice despite his...more

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Aug 18, 2012 Mandar rated it 3 of 5 stars

So this was a thrilling page-turner. With lots of Indian gaalis thrown in. And of course, tons and tons of violence. And two amazing characters - Sartaj and Gaitonde. The tone of the book, the dialogues were right on the money, really authentic and all that. I really liked his language. But "literary masterpiece" - I think not.

Also, it was too bloody long. I like to relish a good book, admire a nice turn of phrase - and this book was full of those - but there were parts where I was just skimmin...more So this was a thrilling page-turner. With lots of Indian gaalis thrown in. And of course, tons and tons of violence. And two amazing characters - Sartaj and Gaitonde. The tone of the book, the dialogues were right on the money, really authentic and all that. I really liked his language. But "literary masterpiece" - I think not.

Also, it was too bloody long. I like to relish a good book, admire a nice turn of phrase - and this book was full of those - but there were parts where I was just skimming. There were a few side stories that were totally unnecessary, I thought: the whole bit about Sartaj's mom's family etc. Also, what was with the Reyaz Bhai thing at the end?

There were a few points when I thought the plot was struggling to move forward. I think there were at least a half-dozen times when Anjali Thakur keeps telling Sartaj, "It is a matter of national security. I can't tell you more at this time." And then, when things just cannot move forward without some new information, she gives him a little more to go on.

The whole Ganesh Gaitonde voice-over thing seemed like a rather weak literary device. But most importantly, I didn't think it all came together too well in the end - there seemed to be this unsaid promise of a grand unifying conclusion in the read. It did come together, but it lacked the punch that was needed at the end of a thousand pages.

Over all, it was a good book. It kept me interested (more so than the only other 1,000 page book that I've read: Suitable Boy). But I didn't get blown away by this book, like I did with Maximum City. It was also not as good as Chandra's "Red Earth and Pouring Rain". I think most of all, I was disappointed that this book didn't live up to the critics' "literary masterpiece" call, that screamed out from its cover. I hate to admit it, but this was mostly pop-trash - no? Was this any better than Da Vinci Code? Seriously. Just because it's "sprawling" and "Dickensian" and has a glossary that's several pages long, doesn't mean it's very literary or all that. (Or does it? :)(less)

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Feb 15, 2008 Shelley rated it 5 of 5 stars

Well, what a little hypocrite I am ... because politically, this book has so much wrong with it on so many levels. So don't rush out and read it and then denounce me, and you know who I'm talking to. But. Still. What a story. What writing. What a great read. In its scope and thrust and breadth -- it is at once a detective story, a character study or rather series of character studies, a sweeping meditation on the post-colonial history of India and in particular the national question (I found one...more

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Feb 26, 2009 Prashant R rated it 5 of 5 stars

Vikram Chandra's "Sacred Games" is the "best" Bombay book, whichever way you look at it. It is set in Bombay and it is about the great metropolis.

Bombay is probably the main character in this "tome" (900 pages and 7 years in the making), which is at first difficult to penetrate, but completely addictive and rewarding once, you go past the 200 page mark.

What makes the book difficult to penetrate is the profusion of characters and the confusing at first-plot structure. (and to readers not from Bo...more Vikram Chandra's "Sacred Games" is the "best" Bombay book, whichever way you look at it. It is set in Bombay and it is about the great metropolis.

Bombay is probably the main character in this "tome" (900 pages and 7 years in the making), which is at first difficult to penetrate, but completely addictive and rewarding once, you go past the 200 page mark.

What makes the book difficult to penetrate is the profusion of characters and the confusing at first-plot structure. (and to readers not from Bombay, the language. Chandra uses bombay street slang (which itself is derived from a multitude of languages and is its own "bambaiya" dialect) without your usual italics or a useful glossary as an annexure.

The book is at core a love song to the Bombay which the author loves, but works on multiple levels. Firstly, it works as a solid piece of Victorian fiction. Not as much a "whodunit", as a “why they did what they did” . Secondly, it is a deep introspection of the changing nature of that wondrous megapolis, which nurtures and nourishes its many economic immigrants. Religion, the Underworld, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Bollywood,the glitterati etc etc, are covered by the broad canvas of this novel which spans from pre independence India to the present day.

Granted, that not all the side stories and minor characters pay off or add to the overall narrative (some of the insets are frankly self-indulgent), but that is but a minor blemish in a book which gives you a character as accomplished and complete as Ganesh Gaitonde.

Ganesh Gaitonde- the "don", the "rags to riches"- it can happen only in bombay phenomenon, the taker of boys, the ravager of women, a connoisseur of Bollywood cinema, the self-learned street fighter, the at once dangerous impulsive, globe trotting, central character. It is apparent that Gaitonde has been invested with the 7 years of research and an infinite supply of humanity. This is a fiction character which will surely stay with you.

In comparison, Sartaj Singh, the 40 year old, divorced cop,pales, but only slightly. Sartaj is the unwitting hero, in this novel, where all the characters are painted "pale grey" at best.

Some of the other characters which Chandra creates, from jojo - the madam, to Katekar, Sartaj's constable are indeed Bombay characters of our times.

Bollywood plays a huge role in this book as well. From the aspiring actress, Zoya Mirza’s rise to Gaitonde’s boys discussing what a Mukesh, Mohammed Rafi and a Kishore Kumar ditty, stands for.

This is indeed a big, clamorous novel, very similar to Bombay where the sound of the crowds, the daily bump and grind, is its own sweet melody.

This is probably the best bombay book ever. Move over Rushdie...

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Nov 01, 2007 Atul rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime, fiction, highly-recommended, society, all-i-own

I'll ignore the insets when I write about this book. Being from Mumbai and a someone who love the city more than anything, this book was a wonderful read. Chandra tells nice stories! More about this book in this post, in my blog.

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Nov 24, 2008 Powells.com rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Sacred Games is a brilliant crime epic, which impressively balances a literary detective and gangster story with a cinematically violent tale of contemporary Bombay. One of Chandra's most remarkable achievements amidst this novel of marvels is his ability to turn mundane moments into extraordinary ones; a father's lovingly ritualized inquiries into his sons' hygiene are just as compelling as far higher octane scenes of crime and gang wars. The overall effect for the reader is to have the breadt...more

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Mar 20, 2008 Valerie rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: lovers of Big books, Indiaphiles, Dickens fans

Recommended to Valerie by: John

Shelves: 2006-2008-singapore, contemporary-lit

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I loved, loved, loved the first three hundred pages.
Sacred Games grabbed me from the page one soap-operatic opening; it's chock-full of richly-textured language, spot-on observations, sympathetic and engaging characters...and all the other positive comments others have already made.

But by page 600, I was bored, though I dutifully slogged through to the end.... Having guessed all but one of the plot 'twists', I felt cheated. I became especially bored by the Gaitonde chapters, which were initiall...more

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Sep 13, 2007 T. Scott rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone

This is, as many have no doubt noted, a long book. I read at night before I go to bed, so this was a long read for me, but I looked forward to being pulled into it each night. I won't describe the plot because you can find it elsewhere, except to say that its setting is Bombay (Mumbai) and that it's a book of dual identities -- cop and mobster -- and depicts each with varying degrees of sympathy, empathy and sadness. I felt both were at the core melancholy figures looking for something. One thin...more

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Jul 28, 2007 Radhika rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Indophiles

Really, really, really a good read. Pulled me in and kept me there despite its LOOONG length. It is almost a 1000 pages. But so well written. I love complex interwoven stories, stories from which other stories emerge. Despite not meeting characters for whole chapters, you recollect them easily. The portraits are quite nice but Bombay and its messy feelings run through the whole novel. It is replete with Bambaiya which one may understand using the glossary provided at the back of the book. Lotsa...more

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Mar 28, 2007 Allison rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone, but especially people interested in India

Shelves: fiction

This is a sprawling novel about gangsters and cops in Mumbai, India. The author includes a Hindi glossary to assist with the Hindi words sprinkled liberally throughout the text. At first I was frustrated because I wanted to look all of them up, and this book is big (900 pages) and heavy, which made it very cumbersome. But as I went along, I recognized many of the words (especially the bad ones!), so I didn't have to refer to the glossary as often. The main characters are Sartaj Singh, a policema...more

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Aug 03, 2008 Andrea rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 24, 2008 Logan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Logan by: Salon.com

Shelves: fiction, india

I am a sucker for fiction set in or around Mumbai, so picking this up was a no-brainer. Chandra's first book, Red Earth & Falling Rain, was only so-so but this new book has managed to grip me within the first 50 pages. I'll let you know how I'm feeling after I get to Page 900 or so...

900 pages later, I am of the opinion that Vikram Chandra is in dire need of a skilled editor. This could have been whittled down about 500 pages and moved a lot more smoothly, yet the characters are still intere...more

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Apr 20, 2010 Joyce Lagow rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Why did Ganesh Gaitonde, Mafia-style Indian crime lord, return to Mumbai to commit suicide?[return][return]This question is central to the plot of this very good police procedural. Two protagonists are driven to find the answer: Sartaj Singh, an divorced inspector with the Mumbai police department, and Gaitonde himself, who narrates his life story--after his suicide.[return][return]While true to its genre, Sacred Games is much more than a police procedural. The story could not have taken place o...more Why did Ganesh Gaitonde, Mafia-style Indian crime lord, return to Mumbai to commit suicide?[return][return]This question is central to the plot of this very good police procedural. Two protagonists are driven to find the answer: Sartaj Singh, an divorced inspector with the Mumbai police department, and Gaitonde himself, who narrates his life story--after his suicide.[return][return]While true to its genre, Sacred Games is much more than a police procedural. The story could not have taken place outside of Mumbai; indeed, at one time or another, all the major characters talk about their love or need for this sprawling, dirty, polluted, completely corrupt city. The book abounds with descriptions of neighborhoods, important buildings, stores, restaurants, street vendors, and everything else that makes up the vital life of this city. [return][return]The same is true for the people as well; we meet them from every walk of life, from the beggars through the lowest criminal through socialites, businessmen--and film stars. What Chandra shows is the (to me) truly astonishing obsession Indians have with films, from the songs to the actors and actresses who star in them, and who occupy the fantasies of those in every stratum of Indian life. Bollywood and its culture play a major role in the story.[return][return]The book is structured in an interesting way: third person narrative of Sartaj Singh� s role with first-person narrative by Gaitonde. From time to time, Chandra inserts other related material in just that way: chapters he calls inserts.[return][return]I enjoyed the story and found the abundant information about Mumbai fascinating. Chandra liberally uses Hindi and other vocabulary, particularly street slang, throughout the book; while there� s a glossary in the back, it� s nowhere near adequate. Plus, this is a long, long book, 947 pages, and after a while, the need to check constantly with the glossary becomes annoying, especially when the word you� re looking for isn� t there. The length seems necessary given Chandra� s goals, but the book does tend to bog down in the middle. What keeps up the interest, though, is Gaitonde, who is a great character. Even while other parts lag, Gaitonde is always fascinating, as we learn about his life through his eyes, his intriguing spiritual quest, and his descent into his own particular hell. Without Gaitonde, the book would be mediocre, no matter how much detail of Mumbai life Chandra crams into the story. [return][return]If you are interested in indian life, and want to read more abut the way Indians look at Bollywood, then this is a good book; the police procedural part is nicely nested within all that information. But it is not a book I would recommend on either its literary or entertainment merits.(less)

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Jan 22, 2009 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

This big, juicy novel exuberantly thrusts the reader into modern India like no other I've read. Although the story moves as fast as any successful thriller, and the plot careens energetically in many directions, it's all headed to one deeper place: to examine if the way we act in the world reflects who we are inside, or is an assumed, learned response to the circumstances we experience. With that difficult task in hand, Chandra, a master raconteur, tells the intertwining stories of two men, who...more This big, juicy novel exuberantly thrusts the reader into modern India like no other I've read. Although the story moves as fast as any successful thriller, and the plot careens energetically in many directions, it's all headed to one deeper place: to examine if the way we act in the world reflects who we are inside, or is an assumed, learned response to the circumstances we experience. With that difficult task in hand, Chandra, a master raconteur, tells the intertwining stories of two men, who should not, on the face of it, have much in common.

Ganesh Gaitonde is a small-time crook who becomes the biggest Hindu mob boss in India. A street kid with no resources but his own wits, he evolves into a violent, immoral, spoiled man/boy who is protected and catered to by his band of dependent henchmen. He is as fascinating for his acts of unthinking bloodshed and revenge as he is for his sentimental generosity; for his naive delusion that he can produce the perfect Bollywood action movie, as he is by his blind devotion to a renowned holy man.

His story is laid side-by-side that of Sartaj Singh, a Sikh police officer in Mumbai. Singh is carrying the heavy mantle of a respected father who has preceded him on the force, a feeling of ennui about much of his daily grind, and a failed marriage. When Singh becomes the unwitting ear to Gaitonde's last words, and oversees the discovery of Gaitonde's body following his bizarre suicide, Singh is dragged into Gaitonde's sphere whether he wants to be there or not. We are captivated as Gaitonde posthumously recounts his autobiography and Singh tries to determine if Gaitonde's influence over India had grown from grossly criminal to internationally threatening.

This is a novel full of surprises, humor, bravura set pieces, and a plethora of Hindi profanity. We are treated to the sights, sounds and smells of Bombay, which is truly its own lush character in the book. But more than that, Sacred Games is a delicious head-first dive into words, deftly used not only to tell a good story, but to plumb the contradictory depths of human nature. (less)

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May 18, 2013 Steven Salaita rated it 5 of 5 stars

So...kick-ass. Sorry, it's the term that keeps coming to mind. I really dug this novel. I don't disagree with the many structural and thematic critiques to be found on goodreads. I'm judging this one mainly by the level of enjoyment I derived from it, although I feel like I should blare Bollywood songs outside Chandra's bedroom window for about a week to take revenge for the little sleep I got while reading Sacred Games.

The characters make the novel excellent:

--Ganesh Gaitonde, at once likeabl...more So...kick-ass. Sorry, it's the term that keeps coming to mind. I really dug this novel. I don't disagree with the many structural and thematic critiques to be found on goodreads. I'm judging this one mainly by the level of enjoyment I derived from it, although I feel like I should blare Bollywood songs outside Chandra's bedroom window for about a week to take revenge for the little sleep I got while reading Sacred Games.

The characters make the novel excellent:

--Ganesh Gaitonde, at once likeable and deplorable, gratuitously violent and, in a few moments, legitimately compassionate.

--Aadil, whose inset many didn't like (or find necessary, in any case). Necessary or not, I found his story especially heartbreaking. And that scene with the woman in the pit? God al-fucking-mighty.

--Guru-ji, such an exquisite conman, and utterly terrifying in his stoical belligerence.

--Jo-Jo, Ganesh's foil, and an extremely sharp businesswoman and conversationalist. I'm not saying she got what was coming to her at the end, but surely she knew Ganesh would go batshit when she ridiculed his small penis. And when Ganesh goes batshit, people die.

Others and others. No need to go through them all.

A few other observations:

--Fuck the glossary. Don't get me wrong. I used it. I used the hell out of it. But around halfway through the novel the language begins to click and subsequently works beautifully. The glossary becomes a distraction.

--the dramatis personae list is pretty useless. Keep track of the characters, even the minor ones. Many of them return and you'll be scrambling through 400 backpages trying to remember where you heard their names. The DP list won't at all help.

--the humor of Sacred Games is underrated. In fact, it's both clever and funny, the holy couplet of enjoyable reading. The aforementioned size of Gaitonde's penis, for instance, leads to an indescribably hilarious scene.

A 900+ page novel that is hard to put down is a rarity and one of the true pleasures of human existence. I had much fun with Sacred Games but also found it to be serious and observant. Plus, I can cuss like a maderchod in Hindi now. (less)

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Dec 22, 2012 Koel rated it 3 of 5 stars

You can read the html version of the review at http://anaroiterbookreviews.blogspot.....

When I pulled out the book from the library shelf I decided upon taking this book home for a couple of reasons. The title of the book did ring a bell in my mind but I also registered the fact that this author was not the same one who wrote an equally thick book “A Suitable Boy”. Somehow, I am not in love with most Indian authors. I do not why I just cannot get to like their stories, their way of writing or th...more You can read the html version of the review at http://anaroiterbookreviews.blogspot.....

When I pulled out the book from the library shelf I decided upon taking this book home for a couple of reasons. The title of the book did ring a bell in my mind but I also registered the fact that this author was not the same one who wrote an equally thick book “A Suitable Boy”. Somehow, I am not in love with most Indian authors. I do not why I just cannot get to like their stories, their way of writing or their take on Indian way of living. Perhaps it is our education which has kind of ensconced the British English and their literature well in our minds. So when we read books we still expect similar kind of writing. At least I do (sigh). However, I did like few authors and Vikram Seth and Jhumpa Lahiri were among them. Hence the primary assumptions while selecting the book were that I would be keeping myself busy thanks to the thick volume and it would hopefully be a nice read like the author’s namesake (by first name:D ).

Both assumptions weren’t fully correct. I realized that I really am a voracious reader and my abundant free time helps me in finishing the books earlier than either me or my family would like. My mother’s frequent complaint is that I almost gobble the books when they come from the library. I behave as they would be taken away from me very soon and hence the only action left to me is to finish reading them as soon as I can. Thankfully this volume kept me busy during the days of no phone and Internet connection. I am one of the present generation who somehow cannot live without at least 5 mins of Internet surfing a day, at home. While traveling I am usually sane without any such connection but one never knows.

Regarding the author, I hardly remember Seth’s style of writing, but I wasn’t very pleased with Chandra’s. Perhaps it was the indulgent use of Bombay Hindi, more known as “tapori” language. With just one book I feel I am quite familiar with the street talk. Unfortunately most of the terms are used by the police and gangsters. While the writing didn’t exactly enthrall me, I really liked the story and the plot, especially the way he kept two different loops of story telling on the same events run parallely. One was happening in the present and one was telling the story from past.

Chandra claimed to have undergone a lot of research in the beginning of the book. Hence I assume a lot of the story is based on few real-life incidents. With the intersecting lives of mafia dons, Bollywood, one would feel at many places that some characters are probably based on people we know. I haven’t figured out any till now though I am still ruminating. There are numerous characters all throughout the story. Some have lives of just few pages but their stories are very interesting and touching like Navneet behenji, Dipika. I am yet to find a male character whose life touched me! Most part of the book is about a don and a policeman investigating his death. There are countless characters and most are interconnected. The book also seems to have an invisible moral of Karma in many of the mini stories as well as the main one. Funnily or happily, the don dies a sad death while the supposedly good police man leads a happy life. However, on second thought I have read about these people ending their lives rather violently. Prabhakaran who was quite a don in his own way is probably a recent example. Overall, the book is quite an interesting read though the language really pained me. The best part of the book as mentioned already is the story and thanks to it I have been seriously wondering where the divide ends between research and fiction.

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May 07, 2012 Carl Brush rated it 3 of 5 stars

Vikram Chandra is a hot new Indian writer whose latest novel, Sacred Games, has won some critical plaudits, so I decided to take a look and found an accomplished author with some unique approaches. Sacred Games is a literary novel disguised as a detective/thriller. Chandra’s protagonist detective is a Sikh in a police department dominated almost entirely by Hindus, and so becomes a sort of litmus for all the fragmented racial, ethnic, and class elements that apparently make up modern Indian soci...more Vikram Chandra is a hot new Indian writer whose latest novel, Sacred Games, has won some critical plaudits, so I decided to take a look and found an accomplished author with some unique approaches. Sacred Games is a literary novel disguised as a detective/thriller. Chandra’s protagonist detective is a Sikh in a police department dominated almost entirely by Hindus, and so becomes a sort of litmus for all the fragmented racial, ethnic, and class elements that apparently make up modern Indian society. There are your basic Moslem-Hindu-Christian conflicts plus a long list of others I’d never heard of. There are also an amazing number of languages involved--Hindi, English, Magahi, Maithili, Urdu. In addition to the detective Sartaj, there’s a first person narrative by the novel’s primary antagonist--a street urchin cum crime lord who tells his story post-mortem. Since we already know the fact and manner of his death, it’s not a question of whodunit, but of how they done it as the detective and gangster work their ways to the collision point.

That part of the story was intriguing, even spellbinding. However, there is a host of other characters (there’s a character list at the beginning of the book) and the number of languages often broke the spell and left me puzzling about who was speaking and what they were saying. I consider myself good at picking up definitions in context and not letting the unfamiliar interrupt my “fictive dream,” but often Sacred Games got the best of me.

The little Maderchod has not even smelt a Ferrari in bhenchod district Begu Sarai. They don’t even have Chutiya roads there which are worthy of being called roads. ... There was one ruptured road winding through the fields, and muddy little kachcha lanes leading off to the clumps of huts and houses.

Obviously there’s some cursing going on here, but it’s so heavy that you want to know some definitions. The book is heavily glossed, but only three of the four expletives in this passage appear in the glossary. Besides, having to look up that many words in such a short space of time makes for more work than even this well-written book is worth.

Too, I think the book could have used a Maxwell Perkins to trim things down a bit. It comes to nine-hundred pages as it is, which includes two “insets,” which turned out to be short stories (quite good ones) about characters who are not in the novel, but whose circumstances resemble and reflect upon the situations of the man narrative. Well and good, but the main narrative speaks quite nicely itself (though there’s still rather too much of it) and these insets could have nicely gone on to have a life of their own, and Sacred Games would have been better in the end.

Despite all the clutter, though, Chandra’s book is a rewarding read. the book’s characters are all trapped in one way or another--in their jobs, their religions, their marriages, their pasts--and they all try at one point or another to make a break. They have varying degrees of success, but none of them is able to spring out completely. In the end, Chandra seems to imply, the best thing is not just to make the best of things, but to embrace and find the goodness in them--whatever they are. Therein lies some measure of happiness, even if you can’t seem to escape from a place as nasty, smelly, and filthy as Mumbai (Bombay).

THE JOYOUS GRIME OF BOMBAY--Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

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Feb 23, 2012 Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, mystery, thriller

"Sacred Games" revolves around the suicide of Ganesh Gaitonde, the most wanted gangster in India - a suicide that takes place in a newly-built fortified bunker in the center of Mumbai - and the investigation of how Gaitonde came to his end by Sartaj Singh, a once high-flying inspector on the police force who is beginning to realize he is on the back end of his career without much to show for it.

This, however, is no simple whodunnit. Rather, we watch Singh pursue leads on the Gaitonde case at th...more

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Jan 29, 2012 Rebecca Hill rated it 4 of 5 stars

A journey into another land, where things are familiar on the surface but become darker and more perilous the further you wander. I knew nothing of the Indian culture going into the book and was pleasantly surprised by some of the cultural and historical (implied) situations and positions discussed in the book. The characters were developed a little slowly at first and once the book gets going, it was easy to pick out my favorites. At times it felt like there was too much detail in the writing,...more

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Jan 02, 2012 Kathleen rated it 4 of 5 stars

This all-enveloping tale of Bombay/Mumbai and the life of a quiet, divorced police officer, Sartaj Singh, kept my attention so deftly even when my reading was interrupted for weeks at a time by family issues, the loss of the book itself (!), the unveiling of its hiding place, the holidays, death of a family member, and the coming of a new baby. I was educated in many ways about contemporary life in India, about BHAI(wiseguy) gangs, about astronomy, astrology, castes, foods, teas, gods, bombs, an...more

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Aug 12, 2011 Stephen Clynes rated it 5 of 5 stars

Sacred Games is not just a crime thriller, it takes the reader on a journey to explore life among the people of Mumbai. It is like an adventure holiday with people and a culture you would never meet. There are criminals and other people caught up in this underworld of Mumbai away from the gloss. This full story of Mumbai life covers a wide range of issues and shows how Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs can live together.

A great deal of Sacred Games deals with spirituality, the meaning of life and the r...more Sacred Games is not just a crime thriller, it takes the reader on a journey to explore life among the people of Mumbai. It is like an adventure holiday with people and a culture you would never meet. There are criminals and other people caught up in this underworld of Mumbai away from the gloss. This full story of Mumbai life covers a wide range of issues and shows how Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs can live together.

A great deal of Sacred Games deals with spirituality, the meaning of life and the relevance of gods between faiths. You do not need to be an expert on Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism to understand how these characters challenge their own beliefs and that of other faiths. The interaction and mistrust between these characters who observe different religions is rather interesting as they get on with their lives in Mumbai.

Sacred Games features lots of villains on both sides of the law. A police force with endemic corruption that is accepted by the Police and the residents as the norm. This book gives the reader a view of another world from the comfort of your armchair. There is a lot variety with this story as there are many plots running at the same time. Because Sacred Games is such a HUGE epic novel, it took me 14 weeks to read through it all. Then I had a wave of feeling that I had been to Mumbai and now I had returned to everyday life back in Britain.

The people of Mumbai appear to be trapped in their vibrant city but make the most of it and never want to leave. I enjoyed reading Sacred Games and got a lot from it. It is quality writing and is easy to read. This novel is full of local colour and you get the vibe of the city. This book not only entertains but also broadens your mind. When you finish reading this story, you think back and feel as though you have travelled.

Ganesh Gaitonde and Sartaj Singh are the two main characters but everyone plays a meaningful part. The structure of this book is unusual because early on Sartaj captures Ganesh. From this point the story splits in two directions, Ganesh describes what has happened to him before his capture by Sartaj and Sartaj describes what happens after Ganesh's capture. Normally books that mess about with a time-line really annoy me and I avoid them. Sacred Games is different and this use of two time scales actually works because it teaches the reader about how life goes on in Mumbai for the people work live and work there, quite often among the underworld. This playing around with the time scale allows the reader to understand the whole culture of Mumbai and this is the real treasure of Sacred Games. Then you understand the constant threat of betrayal that all the characters have to live with every day. This sense of betrayal really works at the minds of characters and you then begin to feel empathy for them, even if they are the bad guys. You take on this worry about betrayal and you start to think ahead and wonder who will betray who next and for what reason.

It took me 14 weeks to read through Sacred Games and it was not a chore but a joy. It is an epic novel and a tremendous amount of work has gone into it. There does not appear to be any padding in this novel, it just seems to be it's natural length to explain in full the vibrancy of Mumbai's underworld and how the values of Ganesh and Sartaj actually meet.(less)

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Nov 20, 2010 Kirstie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

You know that one Seinfeld episode where Elaine loves all the recommendations of this guy at the video rental place and even goes to the point of falling in love with him and it turns out he's just a kid? Well, I tend to love all of the recommendations of Ed at Unabridged Books in Chicago. It's really not like that though as he's much older than me, I'm married, and I'm pretty sure he's not interested in women that way. He usually has impeccable taste, though, so I follow all of his reviews and...more

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Sep 05, 2010 David rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: world-literature

Wanted to enjoy this book....starts out great but just meanders around with endless asides and subplots...some like this, supposed to be literary that is, but unless they take the story forward and help the reader understand the characters better the aides don't have a function. It could be argued that they do here but I just couldn't get into the 'spirit' of them. The style was also a problem. Though the sentences are well constructed they lack any lyrical quality...no 'beauty' of construction....more

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Apr 06, 2009 Lizzy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Dear Vikram,

It's been a while since we last spoke. I hope you've been well. I am sorry I only gave your book 3 stars. Seriously though, wtf were you thinking? Do you remember my telling you not to name it Sacred Games? At least you didn't name it Almanac of the Living and the Dead (I think that was the title you originally suggested); we all agreed that that was too similar to Leslie Marmon Silko's Almanac of the Dead - although, now that I actual read your book, I can see where you were going....more

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Jul 26, 2007 Lena rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

As someone with a 300-page attention span, I wasn't sure I'd finish Vikram's 900-page magnum opus. But the story is so engrossing I could hardly put the book down, and I'm not someone who generally reads crime thrillers. The language is stunning, the characters are rich and deep, and book gives Westerners like me a view into Indian life that we would never be likely to see otherwise. I found myself lingering over the images and ideas in this book long after the 900th page.

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Sep 20, 2012 Bill Feagin rated it 4 of 5 stars

As I said of The Satanic Verses, Indians do love their long, drawn-out entertainment, and Vikram Chandra's epic novel of organised crime and the lives of policemen in modern Mumbai is no exception to this rule. This richly-detailed narrative focuses on two figures especially, police officer Sardar Singh, who is a Sikh, and his quarry, the notorious underworld figure Ganesh Gaitonde, as the two men are involved in a stand-off at Gaitonde's underground headquarters. We learn of how Singh became a...more

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Jul 11, 2012 Shilpa rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed-books

This book could be any of our Bollywood movies, all the masala - dead bodies, bhais, bullets, khokhas, bhaigiri, slang, cops, gangsters, cabaret dancers, everything that defines Mumbai.
The novel starts off with Sartaj Singh, a Sikh police inspector getting a call 'Do you want Ganesh Gaitonde?' Ganesh is the dreaded don of Mumbai, and catching him is every policeman's dream. Sartaj and his longtime friend and colleague Katekar arrive outside a bomb shelter. Through an intecom, Gaitonde converses...more

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Feb 18, 2009 AJ rated it 5 of 5 stars

I love big, huge epic stories. And, for some reason, I particularly love big, huge epic stories set in India. Maybe it's because India seems like a place so full of differences, such drastic highs and lows, that epic events can still happen there. Sacred Games is an excellent book, with my one quibble being that the plot seemed to range a bit far from reality towards the end, although I believe that only struck me because the rest of the book is so grittily born in the real. I think one of the q...more

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About Vikram Chandra

Vikram Chandra was born in New Delhi.

He completed most of his secondary education at Mayo College, a boarding school in Ajmer, Rajasthan. After a short stay at St. Xavier's College in Mumbai, Vikram came to the United States as an undergraduate student.

In 1984, he graduated from Pomona College (in Claremont, near Los Angeles) with a magna cum laude BA in English, with a concentration in creative w...more

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