The Accidental Apprentice - Tapa dura

'Sapna Sinha is an archetype of the new India. She has a degree but has to work as a sales girl to support her mother and sister. Then one of India's richest men chooses Sapna to take over as CEO of his vast corporation if she can pass seven tests. Gripping stuff...' -- The Times

'Sapna, a resourceful Delhi shop assistant struggling to support her mother and sister, is approached out of the blue by a tycoon who offers her a job as CEO of his company provided she can pass seven unspecified tests. In the process she confronts some of India's most deep-rooted problems, from corruption and child labour to forced marriage. It gets off to an exciting start and ends with a spectacular twist' -- Mail on Sunday

'Vikas Swarup's debut novel, Q&A, became the wildly successful movie Slumdog Millionaire...This, his third novel, is a tale of a young woman's moral fortitude against the corruption of modern India...she is brave and fierce and we like her...Swarup's voice has a magical quality an essential kindness, a likeability...Like the Bollywood dance at the end of Slumdog Millionaire, it is oddly uplifting and joyful. The film rights are no doubt already sold'-- The Sunday Times

'...a lowly Delhi shop assistant is set to inherit a fortune but not until she completes seven trials set by her shady benefactor'-- Time Out

'Sapna's tests confront her with great social forces that ebb and flood over the precarious turf of middle-class India, and Swarup is able to skim them right from the surface of India's current mediascape: more reality TV shows, this time for singing talent; brutal conservatism embodied in village councils that cast errant young lovers to their graves; a lone Ghanhian's fast, a stance that 'snowballs into an avalanche' of protest against corruption... 'Hope is a recreational drug, giving you an artificial high based on a dosage of unrealistic expectations,' Sapna mutters in a low moment. Other characters refer to the ways the hope drug is administered: bogus equity, talent shows, the actual lottery. Sapna, whose name means 'dreams' is from a generation of young Indians spoiled by two decades of buoyant and liberalised growth. The fear is that, in times ahead, those spoils will go to someone else. What else to do then but go to the temple, fold your palms, and pray for someone to tap your shoulder?' -- Financial Times

'A complex, challenging and deeply moving tale of following our dreams until they come true by the bestselling author of Slumdog Millionaire' --Press Association

In life you don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate . . . What would you do if, out of the blue, a billionaire industrialist decided to make you the CEO of his company? No prior business experience necessary. There is only one catch: you need to pass seven tests from the 'textbook of life'. This is the offer made to Sapna Sinha, an ordinary salesgirl in an electronics boutique in downtown Delhi, by Vinay Mohan Acharya, one of India's richest men. Thus begins the most challenging journey of Sapna's life, one that will test her character, her courage and her capabilities. But are the seven tests for real or is Acharya playing a deeper game, one driven by a perverse fantasy? From the acclaimed author of Slumdog Millionaire, one of the biggest films of the decade, comes this compelling, suspenseful story about the power of dreams, the lure of money and the universal need to know who we are.