Last Man in Tower    by Aravind Adiga Order:  USA  Can Vintage, 2012 (2011) Hardcover, Softcover, CD, e-Book Read an Excerpt      Reviewed by Barbara Lingens Aravind Adiga dazzled us with his The White Tiger, and now once again, he brings contemporary India colorfully to life. The real estate developer Shah has set his sights on a new development in exactly the place where a dilapidated apartment building is barely hanging on. Shah offers generous terms to the apartment's neighbors, but one of them, a retired school teacher recently widowed, cannot bear to move and miss the memories of his beloved wife and also deceased daughter. While following the lengths to which his neighbors will go to ensure that Shah's offer is not refused, we are treated to a picture of Indian society with all its complexity, corruption and contradictions. With rich language and engaging characters, all of whom are too human to be purely evil or good, the novel skewers a society trying to be modern but which in so doing has neglected to take account of the difference between development and progress. This is a picture of a place that, as one critic (Alan Cheuse, San Franciso Chronicle) has put it, 'turns out to be awfully familiar.' Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more Contemporary books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews