Where It All Goes Down
Bombay, 1980s
A Whole New World
The sights, smells, sounds, tastes, and heat of Bombay fill the pages of Shantaram like a big, exotic love fest. The island city takes on a life of its own, almost becoming another of the many, many characters that populate the novel (for more, check out our related sections in "Symbols, Imagery, Allegory" and "Themes").
The city is a perfect place to set the story of a fugitive rebuilding his life. Lin is most definitely an outsider, and he finds that Bombay is a city of exiles. It's also an island, which is the traditional place to send an exiled ruler—like Napoleon, for example.
History in the Making
Certain historical events in the novel let us know that we're dealing with the 1980s in Shantaram. A biggie is the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, which happened on October 31, 1984.
Lin's participation in the Afghani resistance to the Soviet invasion also adds some nice Cold War flavor to the novel, the global menace of nuclear war matching the personal menace of the fugitive being caught.