SACRED GAMES [is] as hard to put down as it is to pick up.” — New York Times Book Review
“Page after page it plucks me from the here and now.” — Sven Birkerts, Boston Sunday Globe
“Chandra gives a startling, blood-pumping fallible humanity to his characters.” — Sandip Roy, San Francisco Chronicle
“Ravishing…Extraordinary...A chaotic and luminous whole.” — Entertainment Weekly
“Chandra…knows exactly when to break rules and when to follow them…Chandra’s genius is in the way he trusts his reader.” — Los Angeles Times
“Ambitious, sprawling...combines the attractions of 19th-century fiction and a modern police procedural.” — People
“A genre-bending, multilayered saga...expertly paced and nuanced...A sheer entertainment extravaganza.” — Elle
“As sprawling as the heat-drenched city it richly portrays.” — New York Times
“Bold, fresh and big…SACRED GAMES deserves praise for its ambitions but also for its terrific achievement.” — Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air
“Monumental…Chandra brilliantly evokes...Mumbai...in all its vibrant chaos.” — Wall Street Journal
“It’s a rare pleasure to be arrested by this novel’s thunderous momentum...Few readers will be unenthralled.” — Bruce Allen, Boston Sunday Globe
“[Sacred Games] brings us to India in full force…Impossibly rich.” — Daily News
“makes palpable a very foreign city, explores deep moral questions...BUY IT.” — New York magazine
“SACRED GAMES envisions a world—an underworld actually—that is complete, persuasive, and startlingly original.” — Newsday
“One of the most brilliant...tales I’ve read in years...SACRED GAMES is compulsively readable.” — Eric Ormsby, New York Sun
“Intoxicating... SACRED GAMES offers up a world worthy of the effort required to take it all in.” — Rocky Mountain News
“A terrific, brilliant earthmover of a book. Crime and Punishment crossed with The Godfather, with some Sopranos-inspired irony.”” — John Freeman, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“The pacing and mother lode of cinematic details in the narrative make the journey...worth taking, even more than once.” — Daily News
“Well-written entertainment…a plot of Victorian complexity.” — Atlantic Monthly
“Electrifying…Chandra pulls off some extraordinary writing…He…hands us the keys to the city and reveals its sordid mysteries.” — Carl Bromley, The Nation
“A work of masterfully crafted fiction...a gritty and grounded epic reminiscent of voluminous and character-rich nineteenth century literature.” — San Diego Union-Tribune
“SACRED GAMES won’t deliver nirvana, but submerging in it, like the Ganges itself, can restore your wonder.” — Cleveland Plain Dealer
“A grand story...carefully and passionately told…The temptation upon turning the last page will be to return to the first.” — Denver Post
“Unfailingly interesting…Superbly realized…The novel bursts with characters…I almost never wanted to put it down.” — Houston Chronicle
“A pulsing thriller...Quite enough to enrapture a reader for 900 pages...the payoff is grand and satisfying.” — Seattle Times
“Spiced with flavors of the subcontinent, this epic novel-part crime thriller, part human drama, part travelogue-is entirely entertaining.” — Parade
“Exhilaratingly ambitious and entertaining…[A] vivid portrait of the clash and jangle and excitement of modern-day Mumbai.” — BookPage
“An irresistible story that you simply cannot keep out of your head...It is, more than anything else, literary magic.” — Christian Science Monitor
“Dazzling…Chandra’s sure-handed writing injects the novel with layers of depth and meaning.” — Sunday Oregonian
“Lavish, accomplished, and…elegant…[SACRED GAMES] offers Western readers a panoramic view of contemporary India.” — Tennessean
“Superb…complex, mesmerizing...a full-immersion experience, as if Dickens had written THE GODFATHER and placed it in India.” — Grand Rapids Press
“Exquisite...A passionate tribute to contemporary India.” — Salon.com
“A remarkable blend of literary novel and potboiler.” — San Antonio Express-News
“Rich...Utterly convincing..A monumental portrait of interwoven lives that lingers with a reader long after the case is closed.” — Globe and Mail (Toronto)
“Riveting...A splendidly big, finely made book destined to dazzle a big audience.” — Booklist (starred review)
“Masterfully crafted fiction…the resonance and elegance...of his writing…put across the full vulnerability and humanity of his characters.” — Blogcritics.org Books
“A classical Bombay underworld epic...Raymond Chandler with songs.” — ABC magazine
“Unstinting in its ambition...flourishing in its characters…[An] intriguing act of literary decolonization…Sacred Games is cinematic in scope.” — Newsweek International Edition
SACRED GAMES [is] as hard to put down as it is to pick up.
New York Times Book Review
As sprawling as the heat-drenched city it richly portrays.
Chandra gives a startling, blood-pumping fallible humanity to his characters.
A genre-bending, multilayered saga...expertly paced and nuanced...A sheer entertainment extravaganza.
Page after page it plucks me from the here and now.
Ambitious, sprawling...combines the attractions of 19th-century fiction and a modern police procedural.
Monumental…Chandra brilliantly evokes...Mumbai...in all its vibrant chaos.
Ravishing…Extraordinary...A chaotic and luminous whole.
Bold, fresh and big…SACRED GAMES deserves praise for its ambitions but also for its terrific achievement.
Chandra…knows exactly when to break rules and when to follow them…Chandra’s genius is in the way he trusts his reader.
Chandra…knows exactly when to break rules and when to follow them…Chandra’s genius is in the way he trusts his reader.
Monumental…Chandra brilliantly evokes...Mumbai...in all its vibrant chaos.
Superb…complex, mesmerizing...a full-immersion experience, as if Dickens had written THE GODFATHER and placed it in India.
Exquisite...A passionate tribute to contemporary India.
Well-written entertainment…a plot of Victorian complexity.
[Sacred Games] brings us to India in full force…Impossibly rich.
A pulsing thriller...Quite enough to enrapture a reader for 900 pages...the payoff is grand and satisfying.
It’s a rare pleasure to be arrested by this novel’s thunderous momentum...Few readers will be unenthralled.
Masterfully crafted fiction…the resonance and elegance...of his writing…put across the full vulnerability and humanity of his characters.
Unstinting in its ambition...flourishing in its characters…[An] intriguing act of literary decolonization…Sacred Games is cinematic in scope.
Newsweek International Edition
Exhilaratingly ambitious and entertaining…[A] vivid portrait of the clash and jangle and excitement of modern-day Mumbai.
Intoxicating... SACRED GAMES offers up a world worthy of the effort required to take it all in.
Electrifying…Chandra pulls off some extraordinary writing…He…hands us the keys to the city and reveals its sordid mysteries.
One of the most brilliant...tales I’ve read in years...SACRED GAMES is compulsively readable.
Spiced with flavors of the subcontinent, this epic novel-part crime thriller, part human drama, part travelogue-is entirely entertaining.
A work of masterfully crafted fiction...a gritty and grounded epic reminiscent of voluminous and character-rich nineteenth century literature.
Rich...Utterly convincing..A monumental portrait of interwoven lives that lingers with a reader long after the case is closed.
A terrific, brilliant earthmover of a book. Crime and Punishment crossed with The Godfather, with some Sopranos-inspired irony.”
A classical Bombay underworld epic...Raymond Chandler with songs.
SACRED GAMES envisions a world—an underworld actually—that is complete, persuasive, and startlingly original.
makes palpable a very foreign city, explores deep moral questions...BUY IT.
Unfailingly interesting…Superbly realized…The novel bursts with characters…I almost never wanted to put it down.
A remarkable blend of literary novel and potboiler.
SACRED GAMES won’t deliver nirvana, but submerging in it, like the Ganges itself, can restore your wonder.
An irresistible story that you simply cannot keep out of your head...It is, more than anything else, literary magic.
Christian Science Monitor
Lavish, accomplished, and…elegant…[SACRED GAMES] offers Western readers a panoramic view of contemporary India.
Dazzling…Chandra’s sure-handed writing injects the novel with layers of depth and meaning.
A grand story...carefully and passionately told…The temptation upon turning the last page will be to return to the first.
Riveting...A splendidly big, finely made book destined to dazzle a big audience.
Booklist (starred review)
Sacred Games is not just a novel. It’s an intricate tapestry of personalities and a contemporary account of subcontinent history, politics, social issues, and the Indian film industry, Bollywood. Anil Margsahayam rises to the challenge of reading as the third-person narrator as well as in the voice of self-absorbed gangster Ganesh Gaitonde—boss, killer, star-maker, and guru-follower. Margsahayam also paints a sympathetic picture of the novel’s anchor, Sartaj Singh, the Bombay policeman who is investigating Gaitonde’s inexplicable demise. While it would be impossible to differentiate each of the hundreds of characters who pass through the story, Margsahayam is particularly empathetic to the story’s many females—from government agents to mob tipsters. This is a long listen, but India deserves nothing less.”
