"In life you never get what you deserve. You get what you negotiate. "A business empire worth ten billion dollars. This is the tantalizing offer made by Vinay Mohan Acharya, one of India's richest men, to Sapna Sinha, a simple salesgirl in an electronics store in downtown Delhi. She can be the next CEO of his incredibly huge and profitable company. There is only one catch--she needs to pass seven tests from the "textbook of life." Thus begins the most challenging journey Sapna has ever undertaken, one that will take her from her swanky showroom to the heat and dust of India's backstreets and villages. Along the way she encounters a host of memorable personalities, from a vain Bollywood superstar to a kleptomaniac Gandhian.

But are the seven tests real or is Acharya playing a game driven by a perverse fantasy? Vikas Swarup, acclaimed author of "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Six Suspects, " has written a compelling, suspenseful tale about the lure of money and the power of dreams. "The Accidental Apprentice "is international crime fiction at its most entertaining.