The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

This is the fictional story of Balram Halwai (aslo known as the white tiger) set into the backdrop of modern day India.  In the first few pages of the story you are haunted with the description of the cremation of his mother at the edge of the Ganga river, "A oozing mound of black mud".  "Soon she would become part of the black mound and the pale-skinned dog would start to lick her..this was the real god of Benaras - this black mud of the Ganga into which everything dies, and discomposes, and was reborn form, and died into again.  The same would happen to me when I died and they brought me here.  Nothing would get liberated here."  This black ooze of the mother of India is also the black ooze of India.  This is a story of Balaram's liberation.  It is a compelling narrative.