Shantaram

On Thursday evening after our day trip to Tivoli I attended a session at the Rome Literature Festival, to which I’d been invited by the embassy. The session featured one Gregory David Roberts, former prison escapee, Hollywood screenwriter, and Australian author of the best-selling Shantaram, a door-stopper at over 900 pages (which I haven’t read) – and there was to be a dinner afterwards. There was quite a buzz about the whole thing, particularly given the recent news that the book is being made into a film (starring Johnny Depp).

But this wasn’t just any writers’ festival. For starters, the location was simply stupendous – the festival was being held actually in the open air ruins of the Basilica di Massentio in the heart of the Roman Forum, whose majesty under a clear night sky can not be overstated.

Secondly, the audience numbers, which went into the thousands; the place was packed.

And thirdly, the technology, which miraculously aided in making the evening run smoothly. There was no MC; rather, the names of the authors faded in on a huge screen as they approached the lectern. Their microphones were the type that is poised along the cheek, as worn by contemporary pop-stars of the singing and dancing variety. And finally: as the authors read from their work, one of two camera shots (profile, front-on) of the author would appear on the right half of the screen, while on the left appeared the Italian translation of the author’s work, as they were reading. I’d never seen anything like it.

I’d not heard much about Gregory before this, but I can declare now that he is one of the very best readers I’ve encountered. He looked every bit the prison-escapee-come-good (and-very-wealthy), with a sparkling black Indian coat down to his feet, and blond hair down tied in a tight, warrior-style pony tail that reached his arse.

He read a short story about some emerald smugglers outbound from Iran; the story itself is a cracking yarn with fully-drawn, convincing characters, sprinkled with gorgeous poetic flourishes that are devoid of all self-consciousness. A rare combination.

But more than this was his actual reading. Really, many authors (including myself) would do well to take a leaf out his book, though I suspect that one is born with the je ne sai qua of his performance: it was perfectly modulated in pace and volume, as the subject matter required, the intensity was sustained when it needed to be, as was his concentration. He actually did the crazy voices for his three characters (an Italian, an Algerian and an Aussie) and nailed them; he seemed to be a good mimic. Sometimes authors zone out a little when reading their own work, particularly if they’ve read it countless times before. But this wasn’t the case, and he didn’t make one slip of the tongue, not even a minor one. In short, it was a consummate reading.

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Given that there were several thousand people at the reading in the forum (the guy who sat down next to me had brought his own, very tattered copy of Shantaram), I felt extremely privileged when a couple of hours later, in a restaurant with fifty or so other punters, I found myself sitting at a table of about eight, between Gregory himself and the Aussie ambassador Peter (Walcott).

For the rest of the night we heard a few of Gregory’s larger-than-life personal stories; how he taught himself German when in a German prison so as to represent himself in court; how two girls once flashed the security check at an airport so that he could get through on fake passport; and, of course, the details of the upcoming film of Shantaram.

The latter go something like this. Apparently all the major studios made a bid for the option for the film. At the end of the day, Johnny Depp (& studio) beat Brad Pitt, Ed Norton and Russell Crowe (and their respective studios) to the prize, because “Johnny” put up a six figure sum of his own money to secure the role, whereas the others only offered five figures. On the day Gregory received the cheque, he called his stepfather (who raised him) and told him to retire. If I recall correctly, the film begins shooting later this year. At the helm will be the great Indian director Mira Nair (much of the film is set in India).