The Accidental Apprentice

Starred review from June 2, 2014
Swarup (Six Suspects) puts a distinctively Indian spin on this thoroughly enjoyable crime novel with a scenario that will remind many of The Hunger Games. Vinay Mohan Acharya, a self-made industrialist and one of the richest Indians alive, approaches 23-year-old Sapna Sinha, a salesgirl struggling to support her family on the meagre salary she earns from an electronics store in the heart of Delhi. The 68-year-old Acharya claims to have no worthy successor to his empire and offers to tap Sapna for the role, should she pass seven tests “designed to gauge mettle and potential as a CEO.” Reluctant at first to submit to the whims of an apparent madman, Sapna is forced to accept Acharya’s deal as she needs the reward he’s offering. But, as she proves her mettle over and over again, questions arise: Is Acharya a benign spectator of the travails she has agreed to suffer or is he responsible for them? Is Acharya the person behind an ongoing financial scam that comes to light, and does he intend her to be the scapegoat? Or is the conspiracy elsewhere? It’s not until she’s falsely accused of murder that Sapna really understands her own capabilities or what she wants from life. Agents: Peter and Rosemarie Buckman, Ampersand Agency (U.K.).

June 15, 2014
Swarup (Six Suspects, 2009, etc.) intrigues and mystifies with a tale from the great colossus that's modern-day India.Swarup debuted with Q & A, which became the hit film Slumdog Millionaire. Here, he leaves Mumbai's poor behind and joins a middle-class, well-educated Delhi family in extremis. Once again, it's 21st-century India-cellphones, industrial bounty, ambitious consumerism-overlaid on a patriarchal rural society plagued by abuse and forced marriage. There may be satire here, but it's gentle and empathetic. With their ailing mother, sisters Sapna and Neha Sinha, new to Delhi, reside in "the colony," a vast apartment complex. Neha lusts after Bollywood. To support the family and Neha's university education, Sapna, English degree in hand, clerks in an electronics store. At a shrine to Goddess Durga, she encounters Vinay Mohan Acharya, owner of the billion-dollar ABC Group; out of the blue, Acharya says he wants her to be ABC's new CEO. There is, however, a matter of seven life tests. And thus begins Sapna's journey, a meditation on money, ambition and fame in an arena where ancient socioethical values are under siege. In this new India, "Hope is a recreational drug," but everyone knows "their destinies are no longer fettered by a morass of caste and class." Characters are lively: Neha is the perfect Indian valley girl; Nirmala Ben is a widow, "quite possibly the world's only Gandhian kleptomaniac," who goes on a hunger strike against a corrupt conglomerate; Karan, beguiling and gentle, is first Sapna's crush then her supportive gay friend until his wicked secret is revealed. As relevant back story unfolds about her father's death and another sister's suicide, Sapna passes Acharya's tests, but what she gains is self-knowledge rather than wealth; unfortunately, this thoughtful conclusion is soon oddly framed by two murders, one years ago and the other current. A thought-provoking dissection of a modern India, though one with an unsatisfying conclusion.

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June 1, 2014
A chance encounter results in an unbelievable offer for 23-year-old Sapna Sinha. Billionaire industrialist Vinay Mohan Acharya approaches saleswoman Sapna, the family breadwinner since her father's untimely death, as she leaves a temple in Delhi on her lunch hour, offering to make her CEO of his huge conglomerate if she can pass seven tests of character from the textbook of life. Facing a family financial crisis, a suspicious Sapna reluctantly accepts the offer and soon displays leadership, integrity, courage, foresight, resourcefulness, and decisiveness, according to Acharya, in seemingly random situations, ranging from preventing an arranged marriage to breaking up a sweatshop employing children to acting to save her sister's dreams and her mother's life. But things go awry in the course of the last, most difficult test, leaving Sapna facing the death penalty and confirming that people are not always what they seem. Slumdog Millionaire author Swarup is a skilled storyteller who doesn't hesitate to take on some of the most troublesome issues of his native landcorruption, caste, color, traditionas he also captures and celebrates its sights and sounds in this fast-moving mystery.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)