An intimate portrait of an invisible mana powerful story of one mans life that contains multitudes.

Like Dave Eggerss Zeitoun and Alexander Masterss Stuart, this is a tour de force of narrative reportage.

Mohammed Ashraf studied biology, became a butcher, a tailor, and an electricians apprentice; now he is a homeless day laborer in the heart of old Delhi. How did he end up this way? In an astonishing debut, Aman Sethi brings him and his indelible group of friends to life through their adventures and misfortunes in the Old Delhi Railway Station, the harrowing wards of a tuberculosis hospital, an illegal bar made of cardboard and plywood, and into Beggars Court and back onto the streets.

In a time of global economic strain, this is an unforgettable evocation of persistence in the face of poverty in one of the worlds largest cities. Sethi recounts Ashrafs surprising life story with wit, candor, and verve, and A Free Man becomes a moving story of the many ways a man can be free.