In this sensational first novel by Aravind Adiga, one Balram Halwai relates the tale of his own journey from an impovished boyhood in India's "dark" interior to entrepreneurial success in Bangalore, epicenter of his country's IT boom. Horatio Alger this is not: Our hero bootsraps his way from servitude to economic empowerment via acts of ruthlessness and, as he confesses in the first chapter, the murder of his trusting -- if corrupt -- employer. Balram is a seriously charming sociopath, however; as he guilelessly relates the events that led to the crime, it's hard not to read the deed itself as the triumph of entrepreneurial pluck over crony capitalism. -- Scott Medintz