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The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017

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The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

By: Arundhati Roy
Narrated by: Arundhati Roy
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About this listen

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, written and read by Arundhati Roy.

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

'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

'A dazzling return to form' Independent

'Intricately layered and passionate, a work of extraordinary intricacy and grace' Prospect

'A masterpiece. Roy joins Dickens, Naipaul, García Márquez, and Rushdie in her abiding compassion, storytelling magic, and piquant wit. An entrancing, imaginative, and wrenching epic' Booklist starred review


'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...

20th Century Contemporary Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Political Romance World Literature Happiness

Critic Reviews

She is back with a heavyweight state-of-the-nation story that has been ten years in the making
Roy's second novel proves as remarkable as her first
A great tempest of a novel... which will leave you awed by the heat of its anger and the depth of its compassion
A humane, engaged near-fairy tale that soon turns dark - full of characters and their meetings, accidental and orchestrated alike to find, yes, that utmost happiness of which the title speaks
An author worth waiting two decades for
Ambitious, original, and haunting. A novel [that] fuses tenderness and brutality, mythic resonance and the stuff of headlines . . .essential to Roy's vision of a bewilderingly beautiful, contradictory, and broken world
A masterpiece. Roy joins Dickens, Naipaul, García Márquez, and Rushdie in her abiding compassion, storytelling magic, and piquant wit. A tale of suffering, sacrifice and transcendence-an entrancing, imaginative, and wrenching epic (Donna Seaman)
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
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
Teems with human drama, contains a vivid cast of characters and offers an evocative, searing portrait of modern India
All stars
Most relevant
A wonderful beginning and very interesting commentary on the past and current Indian political landscapes were, for me, dulled by some of the literary choices in the middle of the book. The last part was again satisfying though.

At times brilliant, at others boring

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Ms Roy writes prose that are poetic and staggeringly original. I just love the way she uses English. The story weaves like a Kashmir rug full of colours and imaginary. Ms Roy brings her own work to life as no one else can. I highly recommend this audio book.

Wonderful, exquisitely sad, beautifully written and read.

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I will be listening to the wonderful novel again straight away so that I can embed more fully the story, the characters, and the poetry of Arundati Roy"s second novel. Just wonderful. Complex and deeply pertinent.

astonishing return

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As was my experience of India many years ago . This book is complex ,unruly, paradox abounds. It encompasses corruption and poverty . Progress and antiquity. Rationality and the world of spirits. The book defies classic literary constructs. It's structure is embedded in stories. Seeming to meander yet moving forward and backwards steadily .

Hard work but worth it

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I lived the story. Epic. The author read it perfectly. I saw it all in my mind. Highly recommended.

Amazing book

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