The Mountain Shadow

Gregory David Roberts

Gregory David Roberts Australian author best known for his novel Shantaram. He is a former heroin addict and convicted bank robber who escaped from Pentridge Prison in 1980 and fled to India, where he lived for ten years. After leaving prison, Roberts was finally able to finish and publish his novel Shantaram. The book's title comes from the name his best friend's mother gave him, which means "Man of Peace", or "Man of God's Peace". There is debate as to how much of Shantaram is based on true events or is a conflation of real life and fantasy.[7] On that aspect of Shantaram and of the follow-up novel, The Mountain Shadow, Roberts has stated: Some experiences from my life are described pretty much as they happened, and others are created narratives, informed by my experience. I wanted to write two or three novels on some bare elements from my life, allowing me to explore the themes that interested me, while keeping the narrative immediate by anchoring it to some of my real experiences. They're novels, not autobiographies, and all of the characters and dialogue is created. It doesn't matter how much of it is true or not to me, it's how true they are to all of us, and to our common humanity.