From The Review pile (8) / Throwback Thursday

From the Review Pile is a meme hosted by Stepping Out of the Page every Thursday. The aim of this meme is to showcase books that you've received for review. (or any book that you own and really want to read/review) but haven't yet got around to reading, in order to give the book some extra publicity.

Today I showcase The Noah's Ark Quest by Boyd Morrison (UK), which I received from Hachette India. This novel is titled The Ark for US editions.

When brilliant archaeologist Dilara Kenner is contacted by Sam Watson, an old family friend who says that he has crucial information about her missing father, Dilara abandons her Peruvian dig and rushes to Los Angeles to meet him. But at the airport, Sam speaks instead of Noah's Ark—the artifact her father had long been searching for—and the possible death of billions. Before Sam can explain, he collapses. With his dying breath, he urges Dilara to find Tyler Locke—a man she's never heard of.

Two days later Dilara manages to track down former combat engineer Tyler Locke on an oil rig off Newfoundland. Her helicopter transport goes down well short of the oil rig's landing pad and Dilara and those aboard nearly drown. After Tyler accomplishes a daring rescue, Dilara convinces him that the crash was no accident. Tyler agrees to help her unearth the mystery behind Noah's Ark and, more importantly, her father's disappearance.

Their investigation soon reveals that a group of religious fanatics has recovered a weapon from the Ark that will let them recreate effects of the biblical flood and recreate humanity according to their leader's twisted vision. Now Tyler and Dilara have just seven days to find the Ark and the secret hidden inside before it's used to wipe out civilization again.

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher:  Sphere/2010
• ISBN-10:  0751544159
• ISBN-13:   978-0751544152

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Throwback Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books!

It’s the nature of book blogging to focus mainly on new releases, but there are thousands of great books out there that haven’t seen the “New Releases” shelf in years. We hope to be able to bring attention to some older titles that may not be at the top of the current bestseller list, but still deserve a spot in your To-Be-Read pile.

I have Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts in my bookshelf, for the last 6 years or so. I pick it up and put it back again because of the sheer volume. I do plan to read it some time soon.

Synopsis:

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 to 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 a 19-year sentence. He served two years and leaped over the wall. He was imprisoned for a string of armed robberies peformed to support his heroin addiction, which started when his marriage fell apart and he lost custody of his daughter. All of that is enough for several lifetimes, but for Greg Roberts, that's only the beginning.

He arrives in Bombay with little money, an assumed name, false papers, an untellable past, and no plans for the future. Fortunately, he meets Prabaker right away, a sweet, smiling man who is a street guide. He takes to Lin immediately, eventually introducing him to his home village, where they end up living for six months. When they return to Bombay, they take up residence in a sprawling illegal slum of 25,000 people and Linbaba becomes the resident "doctor." With a prison knowledge of first aid and whatever medicines he can cadge from doing trades with the local Mafia, he sets up a practice and is regarded as heaven-sent by these poor people who have nothing but illness, rat bites, dysentery, and anemia. He also meets Karla, an enigmatic Swiss-American woman, with whom he falls in love. Theirs is a complicated relationship, and Karla’s connections are murky from the outset.

• Paperback:  944 pages
• Publisher:  St. Martin's Griffin/2003
• ISBN-10:  192076920
• ISBN-13:  9781920769208