The White Tiger by Arvind Adiga in Hindi

Narrated by Balram, a self-styled "entrepreneur" who has murdered his employer, the book follows his progress from child labourer, via humiliation as a servant and driver, to a mysterious new life in Bangalore. Balram himself is an enticing figure, whose reasons for murder become completely understandable by the end, but even more impressive is the nitty-gritty of Indian life that Adiga unearths: the corruption, the class system, the sheer petty viciousness.