The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness

By (author) Roy Arundhati
Description

FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE WINNING AUTHOR OF THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN''S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2018

LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017

NOMINATED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR FICTION

LONGLISTED FOR THE CARNEGIE 2018

THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE and THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

''At magic hour; when the sun has gone but the light has not, armies of flying foxes unhinge themselves from the Banyan trees in the old graveyard and drift across the city like smoke...''

So begins The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Arundhati Roy''s incredible follow-up to The God of Small Things. We meet Anjum, who used to be Aftab, who runs a guest-house in an Old Delhi graveyard and gathers around her the lost, the broken and the cast out. We meet Tilo, an architect, who although she is loved by three men, lives in a ''country of her own skin'' . When Tilo claims an abandoned baby as her own, her destiny and that of Anjum become entangled as a tale that sweeps across the years and a teeming continent takes flight...

''A sprawling kaleidoscopic fable'' Guardian, Books of the Year

''Roy''s second novel proves as remarkable as her first'' Financial Times

''A great tempest of a novel... which will leave you awed by the heat of its anger and the depth of its compassion'' Washington Post

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She is back with a heavyweight state-of-the-nation story that has been ten years in the making
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Roy''s second novel proves as remarkable as her first
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The Ministry of Utmost Happiness confirms Roy''s status as a writer of delicate human dramas that also touch on some of the largest questions of the day. It is the novel as intimate epic. Expect to see it on every prize shortlist this year
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Heartfelt, poetic, intimate, laced with ironic humour...The intensity of Roy''s writing - the sheer amount she cares about these people - compels you to concentrate...This is the novel one hoped Arundhati Roy would write about India
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Teems with human drama, contains a vivid cast of characters and offers an evocative, searing portrait of modern India
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A beautiful and grotesque portrait of modern India and the world beyond. Take your time over it, just as the author did
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Fantastic. The novel is unflinchingly critical of power, and yet she empowers her underdog characters to persevere, leaving readers with a few droplets of much-needed hope. It''s heartening when writers live up to the hyperbole that surrounds them
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A kaleidoscopic story about the struggle for Kashmir''s independence
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A sprawling, kaleidoscopic fable about love and resistance in modern India
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The follow-up we''ve been longing for - a poetic, densely populated contemporary novel in the tradition of Dickens and Tolstoy. From its beginning, one is swept up in the story... With her exquisite and dynamic storytelling, Roy balances scenes of suffering and corruption with humour and transcendence

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Compelling, musical, cinematic... [A] genuine poignancy and depth of emotion. Her gift is for the personal: for poetic description [and an] ability to map the complicated arithmetic of love and belonging . . . The Ministry of Utmost Happiness manages to extract hope from tragedies

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A passionate political masterpiece
Biographical note
Arundhati Roy is the autho