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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 over and his career prospects are on the slide. When Sartaj gets an anonymous tip-off as to the secret hide-out of the legendary boss of G-Company, he's determined that he'll be the one to collect the prize.

Vikram Chandra's keenly anticipated new novel is a magnificent story of friendship and betrayal, of terrible violence, of an astonishing modern city and its dark side. Drawing inspiration from the classics of nineteenth-century fiction, mystery novels, Bollywood movies and Chandra's own life and research on the streets of Mumbai, Sacred Games evokes with devastating realism the way we live now but resonates with the intelligence and emotional depth of the best of literature.

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“[Sacred Games] brings us to India in full force…Impossibly rich.”

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“A classical Bombay underworld epic...Raymond Chandler with songs.”

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“A genre-bending, multilayered saga...expertly paced and nuanced...A sheer entertainment extravaganza.”

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“A grand story...carefully and passionately told…The temptation upon turning the last page will be to return to the first.”

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“A pulsing thriller...Quite enough to enrapture a reader for 900 pages...the payoff is grand and satisfying.”

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“A remarkable blend of literary novel and potboiler.”

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“A terrific, brilliant earthmover of a book. Crime and Punishment crossed with The Godfather, with some Sopranos-inspired irony.””

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“A work of masterfully crafted fiction...a gritty and grounded epic reminiscent of voluminous and character-rich nineteenth century literature.”

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“Ambitious, sprawling...combines the attractions of 19th-century fiction and a modern police procedural.”

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“An irresistible story that you simply cannot keep out of your head...It is, more than anything else, literary magic.”

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“As sprawling as the heat-drenched city it richly portrays.”

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“Bold, fresh and big…SACRED GAMES deserves praise for its ambitions but also for its terrific achievement.”

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“Chandra gives a startling, blood-pumping fallible humanity to his characters.”

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“Chandra…knows exactly when to break rules and when to follow them…Chandra’s genius is in the way he trusts his reader.”

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“Dazzling…Chandra’s sure-handed writing injects the novel with layers of depth and meaning.”

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“Electrifying…Chandra pulls off some extraordinary writing…He…hands us the keys to the city and reveals its sordid mysteries.”

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“Exhilaratingly ambitious and entertaining…[A] vivid portrait of the clash and jangle and excitement of modern-day Mumbai.”

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“Exquisite...A passionate tribute to contemporary India.”

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“Intoxicating... SACRED GAMES offers up a world worthy of the effort required to take it all in.”

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“ItR“Well-written entertainment…a plot of Victorian complexity.”