Shantaram

A novel about a high functioning empath. The lead character, Lin, escapes from prison, which is an extremely low empathy environment and begins to recover from the wounds inflicted by injustice and torture in the very high empathy environments of a village and a slum in Bombay.  Gregory David Roberts, the author, has been quoted  when discussing the novel: "I created theses high empathy environment scenarios to give my readers an opportunity to see the social and personal benefits that high degrees of cooperation and tender connections between people can achieve."  

The novel is an unputdownable journey of observations and remarkable story telling, challenging readers to confront their own prejudices. The vivid narrative allows the reader to encounter diverse situations and characters through a lens of empathetic perspectives making one less inclined to judge as one may in real life and perhaps be more insightful about oneself and others along the way.