Sacred Games Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, A Short History of Mumbai (Bombay) and our BookBrowse Review of Sacred Games.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. Manu Tewari, the screenwriter, tells Gaitonde that "a thriller has to start with the danger, tell the audience what they’re supposed to be scared of, what is at stake, and then it should race to the finish." Does Sacred Games obey these essential rules of the thriller? If it’s not a thriller, what is it?
   
    
2. The French translator for Sacred Games, Johan-Frédérik Hel Geudj, noted that doublings and mirroring proliferate in the book – there is the pairing of the Sartag and Gaitonde (connected, of course, through the sisters Mary and Jojo), but then they each have two father-figures, and they each betray one of these father figures. What other doubles can you find in the book?
   
    

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Harper Perennial. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.