A moral dilemma

WITH Last Man In Tower, Aravind Adiga, Booker Prize winning author of The White Tiger, poses a pleasing and multi-stranded moral dilemma. While the novel can be read as an allegory of 21st century India’s keen genuflection to globalisation, it also succeeds with aplomb in spinning a truly involving tale.

The Vishram Society is an old but venerable twin tower apartment complex, set in the one of Mumbai’s slum suburbs, Vacola. Structurally unsound, bothered by rats and constant water disruptions, it is a place not without its problems, yet measured against its surround it stands as a veritable utopia, where Catholic, Muslim, Hindu and agnostic can coexist without prejudice, and where the value of a good neighbour is highly prized.