Crime and punishment, passion and loyalty, betrayal and redemption are only a few of the ingredients in Shantaram, a massive, over-the-top, mostly autobiographical novel. Shantaram is the name given Mr. Lindsay, or Linbaba, the larger-than-life hero. It means "man of God's peace," which is what the Indian people know of Lin. What they do not know is that prior to his arrival in Bombay he escaped from an Australian prison where he had begun serving...

Olivier, the priggish son of French aristocrats, embarks on a tour of America in the early nineteenth century, accompanied by Parrot, a survivor of Australia's penal system who has been hired as both servant and secret spy by Olivier's mother, and while the two men, at polar ends of society, start out hating each other, they eventually become fast friends.

Thommo and ten of his war mates develop physical and mental problems on their return to Australia. Angry at their hostile reception, they recruit an ex-Viet Cong with "special skills" and plan their revenge, but in real life, they're too screwed up to put up a fight. The team is transformed when Wendy, a woman whose baby needs a bone-marrow transplant, moulds them into a viable fighting unit.

Accused of something worse even than being a monster-lover, Rossamnd Bookchild finds himself swept away from ruthless enemies and into the service of Europe, the Duchess-in-waiting of Naimes, employed as her personal factotum. But despite Europe's power and influence as a Peer of the Empire and as the most renowned monster-slayer in all of the Half-Continent, formidable forces move against them both, threatening to capture Rossamnd and destroy Europe...

This is the story of two families - branches of the Solomons - transported to an alien land, both of whom eventually grow rich and powerful but who, through three generations, never for one moment relinquish their hatred for each other. It is also the story of our country from the beginning until we came of age as a nation