Q and A - Tapa dura

Eighteen-year-old Ram Mohammed Thomas is in prison after answering twelve questions correctly on a TV quiz show to win one billion rupees. The producers have arrested him, convinced that he has cheated his way to victory. Twelve extraordinary events in street-kid Ram's life - how he was found in a dustbin by a priest; came to have three names; fooled a professional hitman; even fell in love - give him the crucial answes. In his warm-hearted tale lies all the comedy, tragedy, joy and pathos of modern India.

VIKAS SWARUP is an Indian diplomat who has served in Turkey, the United States, Ethiopia and Great Britain. He is presently posted in the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi. Q&A is to be published in twelve countries worldwide; film rights optioned preemptively. He is at work on a second novel.