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Der weiße Tiger
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Der weiße Tiger
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Der weiße Tiger
Audiobook6 hours

Der weiße Tiger

Written by Adiga Aravind

Narrated by Jens Wawrczeck

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

Balram - der "weiße Tiger" - lebt in einem Dorf im Herzen Indiens. Der kluge, aber arme Junge hat keine Chance auf Aufstieg, bis er als Fahrer eines reichen Mannes nach Delhi kommt. Fasziniert beobachtet er, wie seinesgleichen, die Diener, vor allem aber ihre reichen Herren auf Jagd nach Alkohol, Mädchen und Macht gehen. Schnell ist sein Ziel klar: die Flucht aus dem Sklavendasein und hinein in ein freies Leben - auch wenn dieser Weg über Leichen führt. Eine amoralische Geschichte von Aravind Adiga (Foto), anrührend und ohne jeden falschen Bollywood-Glamour.
LanguageDeutsch
Release dateNov 21, 2014
ISBN9783898138291
Unavailable
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Reviews for Der weiße Tiger

Rating: 3.77071270235254 out of 5 stars
4/5

2,933 ratings220 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Engaging story about today's India. Lots to learn. Compelling.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga is a novel of modern India. Delivered in a letter, we read the story of Balram Halwai, also known as the White Tiger. Balram was born to a poor rural family. He actually didn’t even have a name until given one by the school teacher. His father, a rickshaw driver had hopes that Balram would be the one to get an education and improve the status of the family. Instead he dropped out of school and worked.He eventually became a driver for a local wealthy family and when the son and his wife moved to Delhi, Balram went with them. On the surface he was the perfect servant, driving their car, sweeping their floors, and massaging their feet. But when he realizes what little esteem they had for him, he stole a bag of money and killed his employer.Setting himself up as a successful entrepreneur in the city of Bangalore, he confesses all in his letter to the Chinese premier and although his subject matter is rather grim, he delivers his story with plenty of humor and wit. As a narrator, I was a little suspicious of his reliability as he spends a lot of time in self-justification but the picture he paints of Indians struggling with the concepts of modernity are interesting if a little simplistic. I found The White Tiger to be an involving read and fast paced read that I enjoyed.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is the story of a man from a poor Indian village who goes against what is expected of him, in some pretty big ways. He narrates the story of his life in letter form, to a dignitary who has asked for the story of some local Bangalorian entrepreneurs (this is all revealed in the first 2 pages, so no spoilers there).The story is told in a very flippant way, but what transpires is a fairly dark story of poverty and the ingrained injustices that make up the lives of millions of rural poor people. Our 'hero' is weighing up his duty to remain in his place as a poorly paid worker with a master, and his need to fight his way out of that very cage. His self-proclaimed status as a successful entrepreneur tells us early on that something has happened that has enabled him to break free, and the story of his life pads out this big break for freedom.Criticisms? The light hearted telling of the story doesn't mirror the intensity of the events, so it is hard to take it all seriously. I guess this was meant to add to the darkness of the tale. But it distracted me. Also, this book confirmed my fears that Indian society if rife with corruption, and it seems that fair and just people will get nowhere. I found this sad. 3.5 stars
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Adiga has written an engaging story about a "self-made" entrepreneur in modern Bangalore, India. In the tradition of Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison, he details the story of his life as a servant, in which he has been slowly but surely worn down and mistreated. The solution to a life of poverty and servitude, as the narrator presents it, is to raise oneself up by any means possible, including murder.
    For the average western reader, The White Tiger is definitely an effective rebuke of the Indian caste system. But I'm not sure it is telling us anything we haven't heard already: The system is corrupt and pervasive...the rich get richer and the poor stay poor; Class is ingrained so deeply in Indian society that it will take generations for it to change. Money does nothing but corrupt, etc.
    I was hoping to read something unexpected; to be treated to a side of this story that was unfamiliar. Instead, we are taken through the events by a narrator who seems suspiciously well-spoken and insightful for his position. At first I thought that the narrator was simply meant to be an unreliable narrator--one who claims to tell the truth but is actually manipulating and lying to the reader. But after reading some criticism of the novel, I started to think that maybe it wasn't a device on the writer's part, but, rather, a reflection of the fact that the author was not of the same social class as the narrator he was trying to speak for.
    Now, it's not that I don't think writers should try to give voice to those who don't have the opportunity to speak for themselves. On the contrary, I think that is one of the highest goals of art. But if you're going to do it, do it well, and don't make your hero a wishy washy villain.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I enjoyed listening to this book. The reader was great! Written in the first person as a letter, relating the events that led up to his current state of affairs. It was an interesting look at the state of servants in India. The narrator was very poor, but learned to read and write and his family hoped he'd make something of himself. They paid so he could become a driver and he lucked out and got a job. His master didn't seem so bad and didn't treat him terribly. Things got a little out of hand in Dehli. And led to the downfall of one and the raising of the other. Don't want to give away the ending. It is hard to judge the narrator harshly. Many ethical things to think about and the relationship between servant and master in India is a very big divide. Similar to the poor and wealthy in America.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Took me just a day to finish the book. Prime reason : I skipped many pages. The writer is literally swearing at India, My country in every single page. I accept we aren't perfect. But I feel the writer has gone overboard. Especially with that Boozing and sleeping in class part. I really regret picking this book up and reading.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is the best contemporary Indian novel I've probably ever read (not that I've read a lot, but this does take the cake). The novel's protagonist, The White Tiger, paints a picture of modern day India that is largely unflattering and mostly true but still manages to show a certain type of reverence for it. The White Tiger has many aliases, Balram Halwai, Munna, driver, and more. He grew up in a very poor village and through "good fortune" managed to work his way way up and find a job as a driver in the city. Balram is a complicated man however, he is a country bumpkin and absurdly loyal to his master but he can't help wanting more out of his life. The prose of his life story is funny, terrifying, and inspiring. It's darkly humorous look at modern day India will definitely compel the reader. Overall, a great book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This story is a series of long letters written by the White Tiger to the Chinese Premier before he visits India. It is the story of how he escapes the poverty of 'the Darkness' as well as a confession by a murderer. Although from the beginning of the book, the White Tiger confesses his crime, I found him to be very likeable with a surprisingly naive personality. But what made this book a 5-star read for me was his vivid and at times oddly humorous portrayal of poverty in India. Even as the White Tiger moves his way up from the poverty of the villages to the 'working poor' in the cities, his life as a live-in servant is very bleak. I know many people in the US who have moved or contemplate moving to Asia because of the quality of life - servants who will cook, drive, clean, and run errands for very low wages. What an easy and luxurious life. But that easy life is built on the backs of these servants and the total disregard for other people is appalling and revealing.

    Excellent narration by John Lee. This book is on my short list for a bookclub selection! 5 stars.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great book. I couldn't put it down. Intense, funny, psychologically complex, socially relevant.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A gritty, honest and at times funny look at what life can be like for the poor in India. I was gripped the whole way through wondering how Balram was going to finally break out of the coop and start his new life. An eye opening view at the underside of a foreign land I highly recommend this book. It makes me wonder what life is really like for the common people in other countries as well.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I have almost given up following awards for books because, increasingly, my response to the winning novels is something along the lines of "what the....?" It was with some trepidation therefore that I tackled the winner of last year's Man Booker Prize. I have little faith in this particular prize for several reasons not least of which is the observation that their website is utterly devoid of useful information like which books have won the prize each year. You have to go to Wikipedia for that. Such technological incompetence (or arrogance or whatever it is) grates on my nerves. More worryingly though is that the prize has been awarded to four of the worst books I have ever read including the indecipherable True History of the Kelly Gang (written deliberately without punctuation or grammar) (or characters or plot or a grain of sense in my humble opinion). The only redeeming feature of the entire exercise is that in 1982 the prize was given to Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark, a truly beautiful novel, but one decent decision 26 years ago doesn't fill me with confidence.

    In spite of all this I decided to read The White Tiger after hearing the author on a BBC interview. Actually I decided to listen to it (not because I wouldn't have read it but I happened to have an audible credit and nothing else took my fancy). For once (or for twice if I'm being totally fair) those Booker folks got it right. It is funny and sad and thought-provoking and entertaining and informative. In short it's a thoroughly great read.

    Structurally the book is a work of art. Balram Halwai, an Indian man, writes a series of emails to the Chinese Premier who is due to visit India soon. The letters reveal his personal history, and that of the broader society, in a haphazard but very engaging way. The tale of how Balram went from being the son of a rickshaw driver to one of Bangalore's most promising entrepreneurs is a kind of modern-day fable explored in the wider context of the massive changes taking place in India in recent history. Balram is a deeply complex character who at times I adored and at other times abhorred. But I always wanted to find out what he would do next.

    There is sadness in this book. If the imagery created by Balram's description of his father's death doesn't touch your heart then it's quite probable you don't have one. But, crucially, that emotion doesn't overwhelm the reader. There is also light and humour and, because of those things, the darker themes of the book, such as the impact of corruption on various strata of society and the gaping chasm between the lives lived by rich and poor, are more powerful than would be the case if the tone was consistently bleak. I can still recall reading John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (nearly 25 years ago now) which also tells of the truly awful things that happen to people who live in poverty but does so in such a way as to leave readers (well me) burdened with an overwhelming sense of despair and a desire to never consider the subjects raised by the book again. For me a work of fiction must entertain and engage first and foremost and only then will I consider any broader issues that the author may choose to raise.

    The White Tiger is well-written with rich observational details about a fascinating place in a time of social upheaval. At times it made me laugh and at others made me gasp and sometimes I sighed with sadness. But, most importantly of all, it was absolutely engrossing from start to finish.

    Audio book specific comments: Excellent narration by professional acress Bindya Solanki. I wondered if I would be be turned off by the fact she's female given that the story is narrated in the first person by a male but after about 5 minutes I completely forgot about the gender difference.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    As I progressed through this book I thought to myself:"I wish I could write like this." Sarcastic, rude, dark, mean, and above all unapologetically humourous. In fact I found this book so good I cannot write a review about it without sounding trite. This book fully deserved its Man Booker win. As I started so I finish: "I wish I could write like this."
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I'm not quite sure what to make of this book. On the surface, it's nothing much. There's nothing desirable in the book, but I think that's the point. There's no sugar-coating or censoring in it. Balram tells everything how it is, and isn't afraid to to show the evil things he thinks. I found Balram's character very odd- he had a way of making me forget he was a confessed murderer, and makes you feel sorry for him. However, when it comes down to it, Balram is ruthless and selfish, willing to let his whole family be slaughtered simply because he has a superiority complex. I really enjoyed the book, there was nothing boring about it. It was definitely an odd book though, and I can't help but feel like it's missing something.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was a good book, but nothing amazing in my eyes. I guess I felt like I knew enough about India that these things weren't shocking or eye-opening at all. I just saw myself reading and thinking "yup, that makes sense."

    I feel absolutely neutral toward this book and its characters, which is not usual for me.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book was hugely entertaining. It paints a really rich picture of life in India, the struggle of the poor, the caste system and much more. However, at no point did this book feel like a study of Indian society- I found the narrator of the story absolutely hilarious. I was not expecting this book to be so funny.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a book that is seemingly a simple story, but is much much deeper. Here we have Balram - the story starts out with him as a boy in "dark" India, where the poorest people live. As Balram grows up, he learns about the world, learning to drive, moving to the big city, taking advantage of everyone around him.Balram isn't a likeable character. He admits at the very beginning he is a murderer - but as he tells his story, it is in shades of gray. This is a story of family obligations, both poor and rich, of class, of education, ultimately, people are people. It has levels of morality - and the book does not moralize. At the end, its up to the reader to question right and wrong.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It took me a while to get into this book, but once I did I enjoyed it. It was a wonderful commentary on Indian society, and written in a way that was very readable. I enjoyed both the direct and indirect commentary that the author made on the culture of India.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Chinese Premier is planning a visit to India to investigate how entrepreneurship works there. In a series of letters, Balram Halwai, a poor man from "The Darkness" describes the system. Perpetual servitude is the rule in India, where millions of impoverished people of "The Darkness" are trapped. The analogy of the white tiger at the zoo demonstrates that imprisonment. Balram takes matters into his own hands eventually creating his own "startup". Is socialism on the way? Has entrepreneurship succeeded? Or has Balram just joined the bosses. This excellent novel, winner of the Booker prize in 2008, is by turns ribald, funny and yet ultimately disheartening. The reader cheers for the amenable Balram but there is no way out.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Hoo boy ... this is a fascinating and terrifying look at exploitation. The rich exploiting the poor, the poor exploiting the poor, exploitation of children, women, family, the environment. Everyone is looking for an angle and anyone who isn't quick on the uptake is mowed down (sometimes literally). This is life in the darkness. You can take the kid out of the darkness but you can never get the darkness out of the kid. Having recently read William Dalrymple's "City of Djinns", which is a nonfiction account of the life and times of the city of Delhi circa early 80's, the contrast is stark. Where his Delhi and environs is relatively benign, Adiga's Delhi of the millennium is a malignant cancer growing exponentially and consuming the souls, conscience, humanity, and morals of the rich and poor alike. It's a train wreck and I couldn't look away. This story hums right along without judgment and leaves you reeling and questioning. A frequent refrain in the story is "What a fucking joke." Doesn't apply to the book, but it sure does fit in the story.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Thought provoking without being enjoyable. Adiga initially gives hints of an India familiar to me from R K Narayan's Malgudi stories and strips it of all cosiness, presenting a confronting, warts and all portrait of a country crippled by poverty, bigotry, corruption on all levels of society and entrenched violence bordering on the psychotic. The characters are trapped in this hellish environment, unable to see a way to break the cycle of madness.The writing is good--very good, indeed--however I don't feel able at this point in time to feel anything other than thoroughly downcast by the narrative. It feels like something I had to read but which I don't feel I will ever want to revisit.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    well written, fast paced, but we dont know whether the author will last
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The narrator compares himself to that rarest of animals, the white tiger. He writes a long letter to the visiting premier of China to fill him in on what Indian competitoin the Chinese labor force face. The entrepreneurial spirit of the Indian business man is far superior to anyone. Adiga's main character begins life as a tea room employee, born in his caste as such, and progresses to the life of a driver where the reader witnesses the upstairs downstaris world of class among the rich and their servants. Suddenly with one inhuman decision by his servants, Balram wakes up to his servitude and decides to grab his own share. The alternately angry, conscientious, caring and half crazed with repression and desire voice
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book was pretty interesting different from what I expected. Read it after the author was featured on the Freakanomics blog. It's supposed to portray modern day India from an impoverished point of view. Learned a lot of things about India and its pretty depressing. I wished that he touched on the beautiful things as well but it was grim throughout the whole thing. It'll open your eyes to a new point of view.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A story that looks into the heart of India today. A young boy trying to make his way through life discovers a world with no hope for the underprivileged poor; only a life of servitude and humiliation awaits him. He, however, discovers a way to his freedom through deception and murder and takes the opportunity to free himself from a life of bondage.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I read this book in 2008 and absolutely loved it. Have read too many since then to write a proper review for it, but I don't think I could give a better recommendation than the following: after reading it I sent it to France for my mother to read and then finding it on special at the bookstore, recently bought it anew so I can enjoy it all over again!
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    was not able to get into it. The main character was interesting and his story compelling but then he started too much to talk about Indian history and that was when I tuned out.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    So different in setting to other novels, pity the narrator was a murderer.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Great, easy read. I wouldn't read it as a factual telling of India anymore than the Godfather tells the average American's story. But it gives you some idea and is a very good story. Maybe 8-10 hours total reading, tops.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Really liked they way this book started off. It's a nice read on probably the `real' India. The last few chapters it went a bit boring however and I could actually start to predict what would happen next (even though I'm really bad at that normally :-)).

    Anyway, after all it's a very nice book if you want to get to know more about India, the way it is and not the way it gets portrayed to you.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Aravind Adiga would probably have got on well with Defoe and Swift - this is a rollicking low-life story in the best 18th century tradition, complete with heavy-duty social satire. It's fun to read, there's plenty of satisfying squalor and a fairy-tale happy ending, and it's as also unapologetically one-sided as anything Swift ever did. But you have to take the message with a pinch of chilli powder.