a still living cab driver called Kishore, who took Roberts to his home village. Kishore Khare, brother of Prabhakar, who drives tourists around Mumbai, has told his story. Roberts' position, based on his interviews "With respect, Shantaram is not an autobiography, it's a novel. If the book reads like an autobiography, I take that as a very high compliment, because I structured the created narrative to read like fiction but feel like fact. I wanted the novel to have the page-turning drive of a work of fiction but to be informed by such a powerful stream of real experience that it had the authentic feel of fact." "As with the novel Shantaram, the experiences in The Mountain Shadow are derived from my own real experiences, and the characters, dialogue, and narrative structure are all created." Roberts repeatedly stated this, as on the book's official website: Publication history Originally, Shantaram was published by Scribe Publications as a hardcover and later as a paperback. Following the mediated resolution in 2004 of a dispute that arose in 2003 between Scribe and the book's author, Gregory David Roberts, rights to all forms of the local publication of Shantaram reverted to the author after Scribe sold its remaining stock of hardbacks. Pan Macmillan then took over publication under the Picador label. Reception Megan O'Grady of The New York Times wrote "Few stand out quite like "Shantaram"", calling it a "gentle giant". Carole Burns of The Washington Post described Gregory David Robert's as "blatantly autobiographical" novel as sprawling and intelligent. Emma Lee-Potter of The Independent listed it as one of the 12 best Indian novels, calling it a "page-turning debut". Sequels Gregory Roberts has said that Shantaram is the first book in a planned quartet. A sequel entitled The Mountain Shadow was released on 13 October 2015 by Little Brown. In this long-awaited sequel, Lin strives to survive in the new Bombay run by the new mafia. Film adaptation When the novel Shantaram was published in 2003, several parties, including actor Russell Crowe, expressed interest in a film adaptation. Although Crowe was temporarily attached to a bid, Warner Bros. went forward with a $2 million bid primarily due to actor Johnny Depp's expression of love for the book to studio executive Brad Grey. With the rights won, Depp was attached to star in the film, which was to be based on a script written by the