The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

A Novel

By: Arundhati Roy

Narrated by: Arundhati Roy

Length: 16 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

A richly moving new novel - the first since the author's Booker Prize-winning, internationally celebrated debut, The God of Small Things, went on to become a beloved best seller and an enduring classic.

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness transports us across a subcontinent on a journey of many years. It takes us deep into the lives of its gloriously rendered characters, each of them in search of a place of safety - in search of meaning and of love.

In a graveyard outside the walls of Old Delhi, a resident unrolls a threadbare Persian carpet. On a concrete sidewalk, a baby suddenly appears just after midnight. In a snowy valley, a bereaved father writes a letter to his five-year-old daughter about the people who came to her funeral. In a second-floor apartment, a lone woman chain-smokes as she reads through her old notebooks. At the Jannat Guest House, two people who have known each other all their lives sleep with their arms wrapped around each other, as though they have just met.

A braided narrative of astonishing force and originality, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is at once a love story and a provocation - a novel as inventive as it is emotionally engaging. It is told with a whisper, in a shout, through joyous tears, and sometimes with a bitter laugh. Its heroes, both present and departed, have been broken by the world we live in - and then mended by love. For this reason they will never surrender.

How to tell a shattered story?

By slowly becoming everybody.

No.

By slowly becoming everything.

Humane and sensuous, beautifully told, this extraordinary novel demonstrates the miracle of Arundhati Roy's storytelling gifts.

©2017 Arundhati Roy (P)2017 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"If Arundhati Roy's lyrical prose, melodic voice, and lilting accents aren't enough, the stories of Anjum, Tilottama, and a cast of society's misbegotten - interwoven with India's social and political growing pains - will keep listeners captivated.... Roy's impeccable diction makes this dense and challenging saga accessible and unforgettable." ( AudioFile)

A story as complex and as diverse as India

Arundhati Roy’s masterpiece is a fantastic lyrical treat of stories within stories. The wide range of characters remain with you as they experience humanity in both horrific and glorious ways. The complexity of Kashmir is always present. So are other questions - cast, LGBT, poverty, power, ideology. Roy invites you to live life on the edges and on the margins of a changing India.

Simply stunning!

An intricate yet tender insight into India’s Kashmir conflict that breaks up in a web of sub-stories illustrating the country’s ill-management of cast, religion, and gender minorities. Beautiful and rich story with the right doses of drama, history, and romance. Highly recommend it!

it's power to open hearts to let in her world.

it is poetry in the form of a novel. compassion in the form of words.

Author narration does not work for me

What did you like best about The Ministry of Utmost Happiness? What did you like least?

The cadence of the writing.

How could the performance have been better?

Arundhati Roy is a great writer, and I loved The God of Small Things, but I am going to switch to my Kindle to read this book. Her voice is soothing and it is great to hear a book by its creator, but her voice never changes tone and it is monotonous to listen to for long periods (and this is a long book!). I find myself drifting and missing key points of the story. Plus, it is difficult to keep the long Indian names straight in my head when they are spoken vs. written. I feel that a professional narrator might have helped with this issue.

Master story teller

It was nice she made it an audiobook, that she read it. It had many complex ideas about her homeland. It was very human and heartbreaking.
Otherwise it didn't move me much. She's a revolutionary at heart and this came from the heart, but unless you are from India it might be hard to get too involved in the plot.
Also it's nice to see she finally let her other famous novel become an audiobook, but too bad she didn't narrate that one, because who knows better then the author the real feelings of each line?
I like her nonfiction work better at this point and look forward to more of it. She is one of the greatest writers and activist of our times.

Beautiful story delivered with panache

Myriad contemporary issues.
A mirror for those who may care to see it.
Another masterpiece.

Arundhati Roy, ever the prophet

I'm so glad the author read this book herself. Timely, enlightening, unsettling, hopeful. And beautiful

Narration not great for non-Indian listeners!

I love Arundhati Roy's writing, but this novel is very complex with many characters and for a western ear, it is really hard to hear the difference in characters. This book does need a native Indian narrator, but perhaps someone whose skill is in narration and could do a clearer job with defining the characters. I made it through half the book, but found I was dreading trying to listen to the other half. I think, like some others, I will get the kindle version and finish it that way.

Stunning, important!

An incredible, gorgeous, skillfully crafted, highly informed, artful modern work that celebrates those who are underrepresented and often considered disposable by the machinations of capitalism and empire. Highly recommended! Intense, and dynamic not a lightweight escape. Especially riveting for anyone with a connection to India, Yoga, etc. and especially important in this dangerously anti-Muslim global atmosphere we are in. It was amazing to hear it read by Arundhati, a beautiful way to experience the book.

a master storyteller

evocative, powerful, brave and fierce. Roy is a truth teller and has the courage that many lack, especially world leaders.