The Mountain Shadow

The essential theme of this sequel emerges and develops with the same exciting thoughtful prose and rapid action--but this theme is more about moving on and redemption than the Shantaram theme of exile. The characters are memorable, as vivid in my imagination as Durrell's characters in The Alexandrian Quartet, years ago. How I hated getting to the thin pages signaling the end of this adventure!

After replacing books with series and online movies for quite sometime, this was a great book to get back into the swing of things and test out tablet reading. It is a long book, where the explanations are sometimes drawn out and a little soppy, but I suppose it is for those that need more words to kickstart the imaginative process.

It kept me going until my eyes blurred and I often referred to the characters as my "late night friends". There is a deep sense of humanity and spirituality in the book, whilst always keeping you in touch with reality in a world filled with inequality.

I got a little lost in the spiritual side of things, but the attention to detail and the play on words is admirable and kept me reading.

The imagination of this man is truly amazing and I will forever be mulling over the truth of it all. It was great to get lost in an alternate world of " reality".

Definitely recommend it.

Beautifully written; Roberts' turn of phrase is a pleasure and wonder to read and immerse oneself in, his philosophical/theological ideology is engaging and one can learn of cultural differences and a way of life unknown to most Westerners. It is inspiring in that the story shows how one can make monumental changes in life/lifestyle and succeed against what would appear to be insurmountable odds.What's next??? Hopefully Mr. Roberts is working hard on his next novel.

I loved Shantaram and I waited an eternity to get The Mountain Shadow and was well worth the wait.
I read 3 to 4 books a week - I have read GDR's books 3 times and I am sure I shall read them many more times.
No book or books come close to keeping my interest page by page......Love them both!! Thanks GDR

I picked this book up and put it down several times. Like others, I loved Shantaram. One thing that kept really bugging me is he has several characters saying "Yar", What the hell is that? I pictured a pirate every time I read it. Annoying.

I picked this book up and put it down several times. Like others, I loved Shantaram. One thing that kept really bugging me is he has several characters saying "Yar", What the hell is that? I pictured a pirate every time I read it. Annoying.

The book is as interesting as Shantaram and as poetically written. The story is intense and the descriptions very realistic. The plot is always interesting and unpredictable. Definitely a great book.
A tip: it is the follow-up to the first book of the author, Shantaram. One could read this book without having read the first one but it would definitely be much less interesting and comprehensible because there are a lot of references to the first part of the story.

Shantaram was a much better read, that is for certain. I didn't really notice Roberts' metaphorical, full of simile, writing in his previous tome, but it really was over-load in this one. However Lin and Karla were fully developed characters and fun to follow through Lin's metamorphous to legitimacy, though long and circuitous. Let's say, it was fun to be back in Bombay with them, but a bit of a slog.

If you love getting swallowed up by a book's story, drowning in the ocean of emotions - feeling those feelings... loving, despising, crying, cheering, fearing... and longing... longing for more. Gregory is a genius at making you taste it all.
And if you haven't read his first book, "Shantaram", here's one of my favorite quotes: "Sometimes we love with nothing more than hope. Sometimes we cry with everything except tears. In the end that's all there is: love and it's duty, sorrow and it's truth. In the end that's all we have – to hold on tight until the dawn."

I loved Shantaram so much I ended up going to India because of it. The Mountain Shadow doesn't come close. I read 400 pages and decided to put it aside without finishing the book. Too much violence. Too many women with aggressive attitudess and foul months. Barely a redeeming moment or character. I was very disappointed.

Gergory David Roberts has broken my heart... Twice now.

In The Mountain Shadow, GDR has galvanised himself as a poet and philosopher, with a gift and conviction for empathy. No person can write so emotively as a lover of life and sorrow together, and GDR must surely be the both of those things incarnate. His words are the voice of sorrow and hope that we all hear in the crashing of the ocean and it is at once soothing and breathtaking.

GDR made my heart weep with his words and sing out, revelling in all that is life and all that life should be but never will.

An effortless distillation of thought into words. My heart has broken because the story for now is finished, as it did with Shantaram. I can't wait for GDR to do it again with his next piece.

We are waiting Mr. Gergory David Roberts, and the breath is baited.

There are books that should not be allowed to end. The Lord of the Rings is one of them. I know that Middle Earth continues on without me and I want to be there.

"Shantaram" by Gregory David Roberts is another. When I finished the 944 page book I was disappointed. I wanted more. I didn't want to leave the Island City of Bombay.

A little research revealed that a sequel would be released in October of 2015. "The Mountain Shadow" came out as promised on October 13th. All 912 pages of it. It did not disappoint.

Once again, I am reluctant to leave this world. I read as slowly as I could (which, unfortunately, is still very fast). The book is excellent. Rather than call it a sequel, I would call it a second half. Yes, "Shantaram" will stand on its own. But "The Mountain Shadow" completes it and adds even more nuances to themes that were touched on in the first book.

It's hard to classify these books. Spiritual? Philosophical? Action/adventure? Romance? Life in Bombay slums or mafia? Yes. ALL of that. And something else that's hard to describe the best I can do is say that Gregory David Roberts has a lyrical style of writing that is as intoxicating and, I fear, addicting as the pure heroin used by some of his characters.

I previously read "Shantaran" by the same author and loved it. This is the sequel to the first novel and I found it to be equally good reading. However, 2000 pages about the same characters is a lot!

I confess that I found myself worried when I started this book that it would pale in comparison to "Shantaram". Thankfully (for me anyway) it did not. Roberts has spun a wonderful tale of faith, love, and ultimately redemption. I highly recommend it!

Loved this sequel to Shantaram, (still one of the best books I've read). Interesting and diverse characters, poetically written and I'm enchanted by GDR's romantic portrayal of India. The only negative is that I had to wait so long to read it!

Some reviewers think this book is not the same as "Shantaram". Really? Of course it isn't! It doesn't even have the same title. Or didn't you notice? The book is like life; constantly changing. Like the characters whom we learn to love and then they die, while new ones to love surface. The author's life, too, has changed in the past ten years, but his writing and depth of thought are still true and strong. Personally, I was sorry to come to the last page this morning.

As good as ‘Shantaram’. As interesting, gripping, poignant, soul-searching and well written. ‘The Mountain Shadow’ picks up just about where ‘Shantaram’ ends and lives up to its predecessor. Worth the wait.

This book needs an editor......badly. The "philosophy" came across as cliched and silly. It was as if he had a list of sayings and just built a conversation around them. I loved Shantaram and preordered this book. I am making myself finish it but the flat characters are not particularly compelling.

Longest wait ever for such a brilliant story. I've waited all my life for this author, Shantaram and The Mountain Shadow. 83 pages in and almost too excited to sleep - absolutely too enthralled by this treasure. But what about Khaled, GDR? What happened to Khaled? Ohh just sick with happiness. I've read Shantaram multiple times in the past eight years and the tone in TMS is darker but beautifully poetic. If you missed the preorder you'll be eating your heart out for awhile. So far Abdullah, Sanjay, Didier and the ever present shadow of Karla have made appearances. No time to write this is cutting into my reading time. Deeply grateful for this master artwork and avidly awaiting Lin's transformation to a true man of god's peace.

The reason I even bothered to stop by and donate one star to this book is because the Man Formerly Known as Shantaram is an undeniably gifted writer.

Which is also why this book is so infuriating: 840 - plus pages of Nothing in Particular. Very occasionally, you may find some amazing analogy, insight or turn of phrase that reminds you why you began this book in the first place.

But alas, not only is The Sequel not Equal to the first book, it cannot even be called a novel. It reads more like an anthology of conversational drivel spouted by the book's rather less than magnetic cast of characters.

Really, it is hard to discern what the point of the book is, underneath all the profanity, mindless machismo, the tedious and self-absorbed vignettes of violence and pretentiousness. Reading this is about as rewarding as spending hours watching flotsam being carried along a river.

Roberts is a pretty decent story teller; good enough to keep me slogging through this massive tome to see how the main characters end up. Actually they end up either dead or living happily ever in tidy packages that sorely lack verisimiltude. Ideally, endings should grow organically from the story. This one doesn't. Also the book is ridden with obscure philosophical statements and superficial, dime store metaphysics. I enjoyed Shantaram, which suffered some of the same issues, and I think Roberts would have done well to turn his writing in other directions. In any event, a good editing would have produced a tighter, say 400 page, book instead of this all-over-the-map core dump.

I enjoyed Shantaram but this book is a complete waste of time.The writing is uninspiring and frankly boring.The characters are so underdeveloped and shallow that it makes you think that he pulled these people out of some ridiculous fairy tale.Roberts is so intent on impressing you about how "deep" he is,that his transcendental bull crap flows out of his main character's mouth like uncontrolled diarrhea and loses any impact that he tries to portray.The book is too long.The story is poorly written.The characters are boring and do not resemble human beings.The more that I read,the stupider the book became.I will not even give this book a place on my shelf.I would be embarrassed to lend it out.This book will go right into the fireplace where it will at least provide some heat on a cold winter night.

People are harsh on the Mountain Shadow because it is the sequel of one of the best novels of modern literature, Shantaram. I was hesitant to read it after Shantaram, because I did not want to be disappointed. You see, the reason why Gregory got this fame from Shantaram is because we all connected with every character, from start until the very last page. I cried when a sad event occurred, and I felt uplifted whenever Shantaram found a reason to smile. Shantaram was powerful, and it took me on an emotional roller coaster when I read it. I had decided to read the Mountain Shadow, and I do not care what others said about it, but it was an absolute beauty. The reason why readers might feel it falls short in comparison to Shantaram is because Shantaram introduces us to all the characters and builds this bond between us, the readers, and them. The Mountain Shadow makes this bond stronger, and believe me, the emotional roller coaster is way stronger than the one before. I loved everything about this sequel, and I totally recommend anyone who loved the first part to go for the second. Although most of the events of this part did not really take place, a good bunch of it did take place, and it just answers all the questions we had left from the first part. God bless Lin Baba for all the beauty his adventures in Bombay added to my life.

The Mountain Shadow is the much anticipated follow up to Shantaram, appearing more than 10 years after Shantaram found wide acclaim. It is a tome – nay, a mountain of a book – at well over 800 pages, and it will inevitably invite comparison with the latter, as Lin, once again, is the main protagonist, together with some of the characters from the first book. There is still Leopold, the real life café in Colaba (its strapline: “getting better with age”) where many of the characters still hang out.

Lin is now working for the Sanjay Corporation creating forged passports. Bombay is full of mafia style operations, all vying for business and power. He has one final task to fulfil for his old boss Khaderbhai, down in Sri Lanka and thereafter he will be a free man to pick and choose his own path. But with Lin’s history of violent encounters is this purely a pipe-dream?

In the first book Karla with the green eyes was Lin’s huge love but when the story picks up in The Mountain Shadow, he is living with Lisa. However the shadow of Karla hangs heavy over his new couple relationship and the cracks begin to undermine any chance of something longer term.

The book is populated by a mêlée of exotic Moulin Rouge-style characters – Madame Zhou and her henchmen from Shantaram, for example, are still around. Lin is still trying to make good but he grapples with his irascible temperament and finds himself in many a scrape, caught up in the violence perpetrated by The Cycle Killers and general gangland warfare. At times, it certainly brings the Dan Dare out in him.

There are many subplots and encounters going on to keep the entertainment flowing. Overall a rich stage of characters, settings and action.

So, does this sequel work? The lyrical quality of the first book is still evident in parts and the prose can still assault the senses: “The allure of the perfume gave way to the sugared sense of firni, rabri, and falooda sweet shops. The glittering splendor of bangle and bracelet shops surrendered to the gorgeous fractals of Persian carpets..” The author does indeed know how to write a story, evidenced by the success of Shantaram. But in this book the construct slides across the pages, delving into the dark souls of the gangs, rather like a Hieronymus Bosch painting, then rising to quasi-philosophical heights, Idriss atop his mountain holding court with Lin and Karla in attendance.

The narrative relies heavily on dialogue between the characters to move the story forward – perhaps 70% of the book, at a guess, is speech, which actually can be quite a labour to read – and tedious. It is also punctuated by innumerable quotes and aphorisms that left me scratching my head: make what you will of “Fear is a wolf on a chain, only dangerous when you set it free” or “living alone as a freelancer in Bombay…is a cold river of truth” and “My happiness was a cheetah, running free in a savannah of solace” and “Happiness abhors a vacuum” to “Love and faith, like hope and justice, are constellations in the infinity of truth”. Oh, and “crime is feudal”, indeed; but you no doubt get the drift.

Ultimately there is a fair amount of drug use throughout the book, but the chemical rides are clearly much more entertaining and enthralling to the characters themselves than they are to the reader looking in. Shantaram was a tightly woven page turner. The Mountain Shadow is a loosely woven series of chapters (91 in all) that sadly freeloads on the success of the first novel.

It is apparently the second book in a trilogy, so here’s hoping that there is a return to form in book number 3.

The Mountain Shadow is nothing like Shantaram. Some characters return and some new colorful ones are introduced, but it is not the same. Shantaram made me fall in love with India. The people, culture, and history were intertwined with Lin as he navigated and assimilated into a brand new environment. It was one of those books where I longed to read it at work and squeezed in that extra chapter right before bedtime. The philosophy was well worked into the story and the author was well aware of his own psychological connections with others, such as the father-son friendship between Lin and Khaderbai as well as trust in the aftermath of living in a brutal prison atmosphere. The Mountain Shadow is placed in Bombay but lacks genuine connection to the people and culture. It feels more like a gangster story that happens to be placed in India. The philosophical material seems forced sometimes, even though I did enjoy reading those parts. I gave it three stars because I enjoyed new and interesting characters and a complex and detailed plot, as well as follow-up on older characters. But Shantaram had heart and soul; the Mountain Shadow is lacking in both.

Like many people, I was looking forward to Roberts' next book after Shantaram. The Mountain Shadow is definitely not in the same class of 'masterpiece' as his first work, but it is still worth reading. His writing style seems more forced and artificial than the first novel, but there are still many well-developed characters to enjoy, many of whom are hold-overs from the first book. This book focusses more on Lin's life as a gangster, and how he increasingly feels trapped in that role, which is obviously soul-killing for him. Fortunately he still has his love for Karla to give him some hope that a better life may exist for him beyond the narrow confines of Mumbai's gangster world. Ultimately though, the characters in this book just aren't as interesting (including Lin himself) as they were in the first book. The Dickensian depth and scope of a character like Khaderbai from book 1 is missing here, even though he does bring in a spiritual 'teacher' to add some depth and spiritual perspective. But his thinking simply doesn't have the heft and subtlety of the many beautifully philosophical passages in Shantaram. I nonetheless found myself eagerly turning pages on my Kindle, and with no desire to quit, which is saying a lot for a novel of that size.

In my opinion, for readers who enjoyed Shantaram it is a no-brainer to read The Mountain Shadow. It does not reach the heights of Shantaram; however, it doesn't fall very short of that peak. The Mountain Shadow contains the eloquent and descriptive writing that places readers in the midst of the Indian context and the many eccentric characters. Roberts elaborates his colorful writing into more philosophy and spirituality in The Mountain Shadow, but I did not find it overdone and was never tempted to begin skimming any of the 870 pages. There are many climactic and compelling events throughout the book; however, some may seem to resolve in too tidy conclusions. Nevertheless, this is a great book, and if there was a third 800+ book by Roberts, I would begin it immediately.

SHANTARAM was one of the best books I ever read. Roberts kept me waoiting for his second, and it turns out to be s part two of Lin’s story. But I liked the first one so much that THE MOUNTAIN SHADOW was a little disappointing. Still a good book but not SHANTARAM. Should have known. We continue in Bombay two years after the first book, and the old crew is there, Didier Levy, Karla, Madame Zhou, Abdullah and others but there are so many more and that’s part of the problem....too many to keep up with. The books waxes in philosophy too much. Again good but no cigar

I was overjoyed to hear the news that the followup to Shantaram had finally been published (and one day after my birthday, no less). I bought it immediately and finished the other novel I was reading as quickly as possible. I mentally prepared for a wallop of a journey and started reading. I found the macho and gruff gangster motifs a little tiresome, but I read on. 'Maybe it will pick up,' I thought... But after a couple hundred pages (and perhaps half a dozen "Part"s that needlessly break up the story) I started wondering where any of this was going. I started to dislike Lin. I started to dislike everybody. It felt like the author wrote a book based on a series of hollow action movie characters. The speech felt utterly contrived. Even in the moments that it seemed enlightened, it usually clunked and sounded mashed together from a randomly-selected stockpile of aphorisms. Roberts' gift for ornately-crafted word-smithing still shines through, but I'm afraid this story falls short of his abilities.
As I got further and further, I kept on hoping the writing style would change, and that the characters would transform. That they might develop some different shades of humanity. But no, the writing stayed lipid, the characters; 2-D, and the events; underwhelming. Also very repetitive. I can hardly believe how many ways he described Karla's perfection, or how many times he glorifies his motorcycle. In the case of the latter, I'd simply call it ostentatious. Like, he kept on inserting imagery of "the bike" apparently just to remind us that he is, indeed, a badass. And this is even coming from a reader who's into vintage motorcycles! When he first described riding that old Enfield in Shantaram, my heart soared. It was an exhilarating addition to the plot, and sprinkled in just enough for you to remember its presence. But in this book, his constant mention and personification of the bike just comes off as kind of gaudy. Like, we get it, dude. Couple that with a completely unrealistic showcase of Lin as the ultimate tough-yet-altruistic hero, and Karla as the deified model from which all womanhood was carved in the image of, and we're looking at a pretty Hollywood-esque production. And, lots of gang stuff. So much gang stuff. I feel bad for those expecting spiritual guidance, only to be hammered with chapter after chapter of frivolous violence. I'm not saying it's terribly graphic or over-the-top — but you just come out of it thinking, why? The violent passages in Shantaram made me sick to my stomach, but at least they were meaningful.
Or were they? Honestly, reading The Mountain Shadow has made me question my entire relationship with Shantaram. If I were to revisit that book now, I wonder if all I'd see are pious, pretentious platitudes... Hopefully not. Hopefully this is just an example of an artist who swung and missed. Happens to all of us. But regardless, I now have to hesitate when bringing it up as "my favorite book" — as I have done for the last few years.
Though it often felt like a chore, I basically finished the book out respect for Shantaram, and I waited to read anyone else's comments or reviews, because I wanted to reach an unobscured opinion of my own reading experience. And funny enough, I come here to find that many of the reviews sum up many of the same exact feelings I have about the whole thing. I guess I'm not alone in this rant.

To be clear I'm a huge fan of Gregory David Roberts. Also to be clear, I think Shantaram is one of the best novels of all time. Roberts uses words like a painter uses color: A great artist will find ways of doing something new with the 'same old tools.' I continue to read and listen* to Shantaram just for the colors that Roberts conjures in virtually every sentence. He truly is a master of the English language.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Mountain Shadow. I very much wanted some closure to Lin and Karla and I got it here. I DID NOT expect all the new twists, turns and characters that appear in the new book. It's a great read.

I highly recommend The Mountain Shadow BUT you must begin w/Shantaram to truly enjoy how robust the ENTIRE saga is.

*I VERY MUCH hope to learn that Humphrey Bower will be providing the narration to the audio version of The Shadow Mountain as he did Shantaram. Regardless of who narrates I'm very much looking forward to the audio version.

Shantaram is a fantastic book; lyrical, (usually) well-written, and sometimes even profound. Created with indelible characterizations unfolding in an intriguing plot, set within a fascinating culture. The Mountain Shadow lights it on fire, leaving nothing but ashes in its wake.

It's crucially important to notice that the author has changed publishing houses and -- most critically, editors -- for this sequel. When you compare the writing of Shantaram to Mountain Shadow, it's abundantly clear that Roberts didn't write most of Shantaram. I'm sure he turned in a draft, with his story and character, of course. But the business of crafting the sentences, line-by-line, as well as editing out (or at least pruning) overly florid writing and a meandering plot all MUST have been done by his original editors. No intelligent, literate person could read these books and not see the yawning difference.

With every sentence, you feel Roberts' own ego burst through the page. There are no real characters -- or even plot -- here. It's all transparently maneuvered so that he can have his characters deliver speech after speech espousing Roberts' mushy life philosophies. If you buy the ebook edition, you receive a very long interview with Roberts himself, which he bills as his "final interview." Word-for-word he has his characters say -- via painful dialogue -- the very same things that Roberts himself declares as his life philosophies. He doesn't have just one character, such as Lin, be his mouthpiece, but in every scene, every character takes his turn. None of the main characters are distinct; they are simply Roberts. This is not a novel but a self-help book.

If only it were a good self-help book. The author has decided to mostly write Mountain Shadow in a never-ending series of epigrams and aphorisms, the majority of which make little sense. They are meant to sound profound without actually being so. Imagine a non-Enlightened pseudo-Buddhist fake Zen Master trying to invent new koans. To say it's inauthentic is being charitable. Incoherent gobbledy-gook is more like it.

Even worse is that the pseudo-profoundities rain down on the reader, sentence after sentence, paragraph after paragraph, page after page. Never content to end a scene with one sentence or paragraph of his observations or life philosophies, Roberts repeatedly stages brief scenes of painful dialogue, then spends more time telling us what it all means than advancing the story. Only to start the next chapter with even more infantile philosophizing before dribbling out the next bit of story, only to start the philosophizing all over again.

The more you appreciate Shantaram, the less inclined you should be to read The Mountain Shadow. Whether this sequel is motivated by money or ego (or both), I cannot tell you. But I assure you that everything wonderful about Shantaram degenerates into parody here. Let Shantaram and Roberts stand as a one-hit wonder. Look, as much as anyone, the long drought between Shantaram and this abomination made me want to be transported once again to that magical place. I'm here to tell you that, as is so often the case, you can't go home again. Do yourself a favor to the wonder that was Shantaram: don't even try. It's a journey that will only end in tears.

Looked forward to reading this book after enjoying Shantarum. Mountain Shadow includes a lot of main characters who like to get high before taking any action, like to pay more than something is worth to show wealth, drive motorcycles looking for trouble, get in fights with pages of detail about the fights. If you're a person who believes using a lot of drugs while driving your motorcycle around looking for trouble with enough money in your pocket at all time to buy your way out of trouble sounds like an interesting story then this is the book for you. I wondered if the author was trying to justify the use of drugs to minimize some personal issues with them,

Shantaram was one of the best books I have ever read, so it was a very hard act to follow.

In short, this sequel is OK, but not great like Shantaram. The best part is the expression of humanity, love and humour even amidst the dark world of crime. The witty dialogue of old characters like Didier and Karla and Abdullah is still there, and new characters like Diva, Lightning Dilip and Oleg genuine crowd pleasers.

Unfortunately, parts of it seemed rushed and sometimes a little too witty for its own good. The aphorism play was banal; the philosophy seemed like filler; and the undying devotion and love for Karla over the top and nauseating. However, there are so many gems in this book that as long as you read it without too much expectation, it will still hold your interest and satisfy those who liked Shantaram.

Still reading it, about 3/4 in. Once again Roberts delivers. After Shantaram I waiting so long for the sequel that I almost didn't care anymore. But it was worth the wait even though it took way too long. There is a lot of philosophy babble but I kind of like that and realize that as part of his writing style as he must have a deep interest in philosophy. Once again Roberts is a great character builder and story teller. If you liked the first one you'll like this. And it's long, which I like.

Oh dear. A classic case of the author drinking his own bathwater. The peurile elements that detracted from the first book have totally overtaken the second. Tedious aphorisms, teenage portent, extended metaphors - this 900 page tome could be trimmed by half and made twice as good. Desperately needed a good editor. Character and plot drove the success of Shantaram, not the droning mysticism that kills Mountain Shadow. Will become beloved of gap year students, new age travellers and sell loads, unfortunately.

I have read Shataram a few times, twice before I went to India and once when i got back and I was grateful for the way it introduced me to a colorful land.I really love that book. I was super excited to see The Mountain Shadow at the library and checked it out right away, carrying it off, like it was a treasure, in my hands.
But, as another reviewer noted, it felt like a job to slog my way through this. I hated the many violent scenes and it felt like the dialog was chosen for dramatic effect rather than how anyone would actually speak. I kept hoping it would get better. I read another book and went back to it. I made it to about page 269 when yet one more violent gang scene caused me to snap the book shut once and for all...

With the exception of the colorful characters, I did not find this book as intriguing as Roberts' first book Shantaram. I found a few chapters tedious and a few others difficult to follow. This proves my belief that sequels have a hard time living up to the quality of the original story.

Just like its predecessor, "Shantaram," I received this book as a gift, so felt obliged to read it, even though I had issues with Shantaram already, rating it three stars out of five.
The Mountain Shadow is in fact a shadow of what Shantaram was and I have been longing back for parts of the previous book that actually had an interesting drive to them. The Mountain Shadow lacks an interesting overall plot, lacks the vivid descriptions of Bombay that Shantaram had and has no characters that you like to identify with.
As a matter of fact, all female characters are just plainly annoying: Diva, as her name suggests, Lis, who fortunately doesn't make it beyond halfway the book and most of all Karla, who remains an enigma, similar to in the previous book, who only has hateful things to say about the person she loves.
The editor was on vacation again, resulting in too long-winded descriptions of nothing relevant to the stories, no overall plot or message and plain errors, such as the consistent spelling of a North African tribe member as "Taureg" instead of "Tuareg." Even Volswagen got that one right.
And then there is the always-right, always-self-righteous protagonist Lin/Shantaram, who cannot get enough of himself and his flimsy borrowed philosophies. Flat and annoying, like the other characters.
The book saves itself by having occasional entertaining content, but should have been reduced to one-third of its length to stay interesting.
One star less than Shantaram, and I need to tell my sister to not bother buying the next instalment in this series...

Not as shocking and surprising as Shantaram of course but a fabulous sequel I thoroughly enjoyed. Great dialogue, character development, compelling story and exquisitely beautiful descriptions of places...well written. I highly recommend it. I thought it would be a letdown after Shantaram but was pleasantly surprised to find it was a page turner and I perhaps even liked it more.

This book was a total waste of my time.I had high hopes because I enjoyed Shantaram but this book is one of the few in my collection that I tossed in the fire.Boring,repetitive,predictable,nonsensical and ridiculous are the first things that come to mind. Avoid this book ,save your money.Newspaper burns better than this trash.

Like most, started The Mountain Shadow wanting it to be as engaging and satisfying as Shantaram. It was not. It was also not a very convincing sequel. It meandered around on the edges of seemingly important storylines and characters without feeling. As for Shantaram, he was the least interesting character of all.

It's a great book. I don't understand the negative reviews. Did you expect GDR to write Shantaram all over again? Of course not. Admittedly, he is more experimental with his philosophical investigations. But, he definitely provides a nice story line all over again. It is an outburst of creative writing and offers many take aways. Would buy it again, read it again. Now I am waiting for the follow up book, probably it's gonna take ten years again, which is the only turn-off, but I won't take away a star for this one.
Simon, Switzerland

(Spoiler alerts from jump street, but do not worry, the book is so bad there is nothing to spoil). We have perhaps read love stories in our lives, some classics and they are wonderful. This is not a love story, but it wants to be. At the expense of characters we cried for and idolized, ones who's hearts we cherished as readers; this in of itself, is a book about a curmudgeon of a bitter, arrogant man, who is so obsessed with a girl, assuming this Karla is of course based on a real life women Roberts met or is still with etc, and the ENTIRE book, nearly EVERY page, after Lin sets us up after the events of the first novel, which for me, is one of the greatest novels I have ever read in my life, every page, every paragraph, every action is about Karla. If someone brings something up, Karla comes into the picture. If there is a friend in a bind; he does something in regards to it, by only mentioning Karla; if a group of friends are together and 'Karla' comes by, screw the friends, ONLY protect Karla. Every analogy brings up Karla in some way!! IT'S SO NAUSEATING! It's endless, endless, word salad of Karla, all the time, and it's awful. It got to a point where I was so angry and disappointed in GDR (ya know when an author uses their initials, the god complex is strong with them lol), that I was literally yelling at him to stop with the Karla stuff. Was painful to finish this. Karla....Ughhhh. It went on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on. Even friends, ones YOU AND I LOVED, finally saw Lin for who he truly was and the death of Lisa and Vikram, and people from the Sanjay Company that liked Lin, and Lin them, and even the passing of the uncompromising Abdullah, were secondary and happenstance in relation and totality to one Karla. Karla was not tantamount to the deaths of key characters in his novels. They were merely 'so be it's, and 'but Karla I place to bed next to me, and my world is one and complete...oh yeah Vikram is dead...oh my Karla, how the beauty you are thee' (upchuck).

Lin becomes, (as he did slowly during Shantaram, but not nearly as bad as in this), a self serving, ostentatious, boisterous jerk, who's god complex mentality was so overt, it made you loathe the man. If he didn't know something about the area or what was going on, etc, (as he of course seemed like the self appointed Mayor of Bombay), his reply to people is 'Uh-Huh'. REALLY? what a jerk. 'Uh-huh' in totality tells Lin, despite his generosity, only cares about Lin, and Lin's own cravings and wants and needs. The rest is just details. 'Uh-huh', when strangers that may become friends, or others that Lin places below himself, tell Lin something he doesn't know. Uh-huh, is an ignorant reply, safely kept for those that place themselves highest on the rungs of their own life ladder. Lin, sure is a fictional character, but we all pretty much can see that Lin is everything Roberts. At the very least, what GDR has done for us, is to have us all want to love and know a Didier; and we want to know and love a Naveen and know and love a pair like the George's, and know and love a crew like the one that gathered routinely at Leopold's before Line became such a jerk. However, Lin's pretentiousness in word salad with Karla, Karla, Karla as the queen and everything and ANYTHING else is simply secondary, ruins any sentimental holdings we have for those said characters; its awful and so disappointing. If he would write another book about Bombay, with the same characters or even new ones, and LEAVE KARLA out, it be a smash winner man. I still want to meet the guy, because Shantararm, like so many others, affected me in such a tangible way, like few books do! Until next time, we hope, GDR, whatever you might be doing!!

Without a doubt, in my mind at least, "Mountain Shadow" is the best fiction book to come out in 2015. Even though it is about 900 pages long, there is never a dull moment. It is about crime, love, Bombay, relations between different religious communities in India, and more. It has the finest philosophy in its pages that I have ever found in any novel (and I have read at least 4000 novels).

Furthermore, I feel that the author, Gregory David Roberts, is the best fiction writer of our age (from 1985 to 2015). Equally wonderful is Mr. Roberts first book "Shantaram". Do your self a favor and read both books. Ideally, you should read "Shantaram" first, as "Mountain Shadow" (although it can be read separately) is a continuation of "Shantaram."

Michael Laughrin - e-mail [email protected]

As I finish The Mountain Shadow, I have come to learn that this book has a different feeling than Shantaram and also a lot more philosophical. I love the book and I think it can be read if you want to continue the story of Lin, as you should. However, considering it is a lot darker - and a lot more in depth - I think it should be read slow and not rushed as I did.

Although the philosophical debates in the book may be a little bit of a tougher read for some, if you just power through - you may even learn some things from this wonderful piece of FICTION. Some people get confused thinking this is a biography of the authors own life.

I loved it and I hope other people take a chance and read the sequel to one of my favorite books, Shantaram.

I made the mistake of starting on this book without realising that it was the sequel to "Shantaram", a book that promised so much but was such a let down. The thousand or so pages of this book could have been cut back to 200 making it less painful for the reader. Sadly I've wasted a week of my life reading this pile of crap!!!!.

It's an easy read even with the 800+ pages, but nowhere in the league of Shantaram. There are a lot of interesting characters, but most of the writing seems forced. Shantaram is a tough act to follow!

I really liked Shantaram, but somehow this didn't really live up to its predecessor. Too slow paced and at times I just wanted to be over with the book. I think the philosophical situations in the book, e.g with Idriss felt constructed and irrelevant.

What a wild ride! This book is every bit as gripping as Shantaram and the characters, philosophy and feeling of it all once again lingers long after I put it down. Recalling events from this book feels more recalling memories than simply a plot. I've never read a series that draws you inside another world in a more profound way than these books. A must read! THANK YOU Gregory David Roberts for another life changing experience

I loved Shantaram and I loved The Mountain Shadow. Considering the greatness of Shantaram, this following up was not a let down. The tone is a bit different, but Roberts story telling is engaging and drew me in. Looking forward to his next book, and hoping he will be able to gives us two or three over this next ten year period,

Ugh...what a disappointment. Shantaram rocked my world. This mess rocked me to sleep. Maybe it picks up after page 400 but after struggling to stay interested and awake for the first 399 pages I gave up. My advise to Lin is to find a nice quiet place, count your money and speak no more.