Q & A

HOW COULD Ram Mohammed Thomas, an orphan from Asia’s biggest, most filthy slum, possibly win the jackpot on India’s version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Ram has never gone to school. He’s never read a newspaper. There’s no way a waiter from Jimmy’s Bar could win the one billion rupees! Or is there?

Ram startles even himself by answering all 12 of the show’s challenging questions correctly. But instead of taking home the biggest jackpot in history, he’s framed for cheating by the show’s unscrupulous producers. Conditioned to believe that his very existence is illegal, Ram ponders whether he has overstepped his position by using his brain, when society has authorized him to use only his hands and legs.

Q and Ais told in 12 chapters over a single night, as Ram pleads his case by revealing how a lifetime of experience led to his miraculous win. In each chapter, Ram relates the slice of his extraordinary life story that gave him the wisdom—or the luck—to answer each of the show’s 12 questions correctly.

Paying homage to Life of Pi’s fable-like narrative, but zapped with a witty twenty first-century sensibility, Q and Ais a darkly comic and charming novel that delves beneath its compelling premise to examine life’s profound dilemmas—good vs. evil, rich vs. poor and perception vs. reality. Brilliantly conceived and executed, Q and A paints an enthralling picture of humanity in all its guises.