格裏高利·大衛·羅伯茲（Gregory David Roberts），齣生於澳大利亞墨爾本，他的“真實經曆”比任何小說都更具傳奇色彩，從學生時代就是個激進的運動分子，活躍於各種反戰、反法西斯、反政府組織，深信自己可以改變世界。優異的天賦，使他成為大學中最年輕的哲學和文學講師，卻在25歲婚姻破裂，失去妻子，更失去5歲愛女的監護權。他選擇用海洛因來填補生命中乍然到來的空洞，從一個理想主義者墮落為毒蟲。

上癮的需求逼使他拿著仿造手槍，以全套西裝打扮、溫和的談吐、禮貌的舉止，去搶劫銀行，因而獲得“紳士大盜”（The Gentleman Bandit）的封號。被捕後，24次的搶劫紀錄換來19年徒刑。兩年半後，羅伯茲於光天化日下逃齣澳大利亞最戒備森嚴的重刑監獄，短暫停留新西蘭，然後流亡印度。

這段長達八年的印度流亡歲月，便成瞭《項塔蘭》最真實的藍本。1991年他在德國被捕，決心坦然麵對過去，入獄服刑。1997年獲釋齣獄後，他著手寫下《項塔蘭》這部厚達韆頁的自傳式小說，2003年齣版後一鳴驚人，成為專職暢銷作傢。

羅伯茲目前定居孟買，每個月除瞭看上韆封的讀者來信之外（其中有九成是詢問小說中那位有著湖水綠眼睛的女人，如今身在何方），主要協助民間團體為當地貧乏的醫療服務貢獻心力。同時繼續將自己如夢似戲的人生，寫成下一部小說。

In 1978, gifted student and writer Greg Roberts turned to heroin when his marriage collapsed, feeding his addiction with a string of robberies. Caught and convicted, he was given a nineteen-year sentence. After two years, he escaped from a maximum- security prison, spending the next ten years on the run as Australia's most wanted man. Hiding in Bombay, he established a medical clinic for slum- dwellers, worked in the Bollywood film industry and served time in the notorious Arthur Road prison. He was recruited by one of the most charismatic branches of the Bombay mafia for whom he worked as a forger, counterfeiter, and smuggler, and fought alongside a unit of mujaheddin guerrilla fighters in Afghanistan. His debut novel, SHANTARAM, is based on this ten-year period of his life in Bombay. The result is an epic tale of slums and five-star hotels, romantic love and prison torture, mafia gang wars and Bollywood films. A gripping adventure story, SHANTARAM is also a superbly written meditation on good and evil and an authentic evocation of Bombay life.