“The Accidental Apprentice” is about Sapna Sinha, a middle-class working girl from Delhi, who by chance (or is it?) meets Vinay Mohan Acharya, one of India’s richest men who makes her an offer which she does not think is viable to begin with. However with her personal problems getting the better of her, she takes up the offer and has to prove herself through seven tests from the “textbook of life” (as the book states) or the deal is off.
The reader is then witness to the seven tests and the ways in which Sapna is tested, what qualities are needed to become the CEO of Acharya’s company. The book also looks at Sapna’s life – her family, the tragedy in her life and speaks of the people close to her. The book ends on a surprising note though. The seven tests are taken from current affairs and somewhere down the line lose their touch. The plot is racy for sure but loses the reader somewhere down the line. “The Accidental Apprentice” is only recommended to those who have not read any of Vikas Swarup’s books and that too only depends if they would like to read it after going through the prologue. The overall plot definitely had more potential.
Description
The Accidental Apprentice is about a young girl who gets an opportunity that could make or break her life.
Summary Of The Book
In The Accidental Apprentice, Sapna Sinha is a girl whose family depends on her earnings to survive. Sapna is from a middle class family. After her father’s death, she had to take over the responsibility of her family. She has a mother and a younger sister with big dreams to take care of. Sapna is determined to do something meaningful with her life.
She works in an electronics shop as a salesperson. She does not like the job much, but she has little choice left, or so she thinks. She soon gets a choice that she could not have thought of in her wildest dreams. One day, when Sapna is on her way back home from her job, she is approached by Vinay Mohan Acharya, one of the biggest business tycoons in the country. He is about to make an offer that will change her life.
Acharya offers her the chance to be the CEO of his company, provided she passes seven tests he is about to set her. Sapna is skeptical at first, but later decides to accept Acharya’s offer. From that moment on, her life changes. As she goes through the various ordeals of her tests, The Accidental Apprentice also offers a glimpse of the many social and political problems plaguing the country.
The challenges set by Acharya test her courage, resourcefulness, strength of character, her ability to think quickly and act on her decisions. Her challenges force her to face the many faces of evil in society. She has to deal with situations involving corruption, forced marriage, illegal trafficking of human organs, child labor, and sexual assault. She overcomes each challenge, proving that Acharya has chosen well, but there is still the last challenge to be faced.
The final challenge proves to be a personal ordeal of huge proportions and it completely changes her life. The Accidental Apprentice details how Sapna deals with all these challenges and how this changes her life.
About Vikas Swarup
Vikas Swarup is an Indian diplomat and writer.
Some other books by Vikas Swarup are Q
