{"id":37022,"date":"2015-02-09T09:55:24","date_gmt":"2015-02-09T14:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=37022"},"modified":"2015-02-09T10:59:29","modified_gmt":"2015-02-09T15:59:29","slug":"the-accidental-apprentice-by-vikas-swarup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-accidental-apprentice-by-vikas-swarup\/","title":{"rendered":"The Accidental Apprentice by Vikas Swarup"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Accidental<\/a>Trust me, you’re just going to have to go with the impossible premise right up front.\u00a0If you need a little help, you can choose to go audible, because expert narrator Sneha Mathan will surely help you believe.<\/p>\n

Go ahead, check your doubts:\u00a0you’ll be amply rewarded\u00a0by\u00a0career diplomat and bestselling author\u00a0Vikas Swarup<\/a>, whose debut novel\u00a0Q&A<\/a><\/em>\u00a0became the international hit film,\u00a0Slumdog Millionaire<\/a><\/em>, directed by Britain’s Danny Boyle. Here, in his third and latest title, Swarup is not above nodding at\u00a0his previous success, in which a Bollywood star comments about the celluloid adaptation, “‘I thought it was quite good. But, because a white man made the film, our people got jealous.\u2019” Quite the sly, clever insertion indeed.<\/p>\n

But back to the impossible\u00a0… in spite of her early academic promise, Sapna Sinha works in a Delhi electronics showroom to support her widowed mother and spoiled younger sister. She reserves her Friday afternoons for temple visits to the Goddess Durga. That Friday, December 10 (which must mean the year 2010, although that detail is not\u00a0included on the page), Sapna encounters an elderly man who introduces himself as Vinay Mohan Acharya, owner of “one of India’s largest conglomerates, making everything from toothpaste to turbines”; he requests 10 minutes to explain his “proposition.” Acharya’s shocking offer seems\u00a0too good to be true: “‘I would like to give you a chance to become the CEO of the ABC Group of Companies,\u2019” he insists. “‘I am offering you the opportunity of heading a business empire worth ten billion dollars.\u2019”<\/p>\n

Although he manages to prove he is who he says he is, wary Sapna insists her answer is ‘no.’ Too soon\u00a0\u2013 after threats of losing her home, being robbed, and desperate to provide for her mother and sister\u00a0\u2013 Sapna walks into Acharya’s office. The CEO-ship is hers, Acharya explains, as long as she passes “seven tests [that] are rites of passage, designed to gauge [her]\u00a0mettle and potential as CEO.”<\/p>\n

Random\u00a0events present Sapna with opportunities to pass Acharya’s “tests”: leadership comes via reuniting separated lovers, integrity by way of an\u00a0engagement ring, courage via exposing child labor violations, foresight proven by exposing a lecherous\u00a0blind man, resourcefulness via saving an elderly friend from her own hunger strike, and decisiveness by refusing to buy someone else’s kidney. The seventh and final test proves to be the most difficult \u2013 and perhaps impossible.<\/p>\n

While\u00a0each of the tests could stand alone as exciting adventures, Swarup seamlessly weaves in Sapna’s tragic family history, her developing relationship with her “soulmate,” and even the sibling rivalry between Acharya and his competing business mogul twin. Swarup\u00a0intricately constructs\u00a0one challenge\u00a0after another, and confronts\u00a0corruption, bribery, gender inequity, rigid social castes and customs,\u00a0all the while leading up to horrific\u00a0violence,\u00a0shocking revelation, and a surprisingly satisfying resolution. Packaged as a heart-thumping thriller which Swarup deftly enhances with\u00a0piercing social commentary,\u00a0Apprentice<\/em> proves to be quite the\u00a0convincing combination of entertainment and enlightenment both.<\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trust me, you’re just going to have to go with the impossible premise right up front.\u00a0If you need a little help, you can choose to go audible, because expert narrator Sneha Mathan will surely help you believe. Go ahead, check your doubts:\u00a0you’ll be amply rewarded\u00a0by\u00a0career…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,81,6,52,17],"tags":[6218,6608,75,10,11,123,13,212,216,39,170,44,837,195,468],"class_list":["post-37022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-audio","category-fiction","category-indian","category-south-asian","tag-accidental-apprentice","tag-bookdragon","tag-death","tag-family","tag-friendship","tag-illness","tag-love","tag-murder","tag-mystery","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-sibling-rivalry","tag-siblings","tag-sneha-mathan","tag-suicide","tag-vikas-swarup"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Accidental Apprentice by Vikas Swarup - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-accidental-apprentice-by-vikas-swarup\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Accidental Apprentice by Vikas Swarup - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Trust me, you’re just going to have to go with the impossible premise right up front.\u00a0If you need a little help, you can choose to go audible, because expert narrator Sneha Mathan will surely help you believe. Go ahead, check your doubts:\u00a0you’ll be amply rewarded\u00a0by\u00a0career...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-accidental-apprentice-by-vikas-swarup\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-02-09T14:55:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-02-09T15:59:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2015\/02\/Accidental-Apprentice-by-Vikas-Swarup-on-BookDragon.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1511\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Accidental Apprentice by Vikas Swarup - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-accidental-apprentice-by-vikas-swarup\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Accidental Apprentice by Vikas Swarup - BookDragon","og_description":"Trust me, you’re just going to have to go with the impossible premise right up front.\u00a0If you need a little help, you can choose to go audible, because expert narrator Sneha Mathan will surely help you believe. Go ahead, check your doubts:\u00a0you’ll be amply rewarded\u00a0by\u00a0career...","og_url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-accidental-apprentice-by-vikas-swarup\/","og_site_name":"BookDragon","article_published_time":"2015-02-09T14:55:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-02-09T15:59:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":1511,"url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2015\/02\/Accidental-Apprentice-by-Vikas-Swarup-on-BookDragon.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@SmithsonianAPA","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-accidental-apprentice-by-vikas-swarup\/","url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-accidental-apprentice-by-vikas-swarup\/","name":"The Accidental Apprentice by Vikas Swarup - BookDragon","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-02-09T14:55:24+00:00","dateModified":"2015-02-09T15:59:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/a00f6dcfcb279c75f3f992ad2919d51d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-accidental-apprentice-by-vikas-swarup\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-accidental-apprentice-by-vikas-swarup\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-accidental-apprentice-by-vikas-swarup\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Accidental Apprentice by Vikas Swarup"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#website","url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/","name":"BookDragon","description":"Books for the Diverse Reader","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/a00f6dcfcb279c75f3f992ad2919d51d","name":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79b5f08575e8962bd00388cd126d374b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79b5f08575e8962bd00388cd126d374b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/@SmithsonianAPA"],"url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/author\/riemert\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37022"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37022"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37063,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37022\/revisions\/37063"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}