The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

A novel

De: Arundhati Roy

Narrado por: Arundhati Roy

New York Times Best Seller
Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize
Named a Best Book of 2017 by NPR, Amazon, Kirkus, The Washington Post, Newsday, and the Hudson Group

A dazzling, richly moving new novel by the internationally celebrated author of The God of Small Things

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness takes us on an intimate journey of many years across the Indian subcontinent—from the cramped neighborhoods of Old Delhi and the roads of the new city to the mountains and valleys of Kashmir and beyond, where war is peace and peace is war.

It is an aching love story and a decisive remonstration, a story told in a whisper, in a shout, through unsentimental tears and sometimes with a bitter laugh. Each of its characters is indelibly, tenderly rendered. Its heroes are people who have been broken by the world they live in and then rescued, patched together by acts of love—and by hope.

The tale begins with Anjum—who used to be Aftab—unrolling a threadbare Persian carpet in a city graveyard she calls home. We encounter the odd, unforgettable Tilo and the men who loved her—including Musa, sweetheart and ex-sweetheart, lover and ex-lover; their fates are as entwined as their arms used to be and always will be. We meet Tilo’s landlord, a former suitor, now an intelligence officer posted to Kabul. And then we meet the two Miss Jebeens: the first a child born in Srinagar and buried in its overcrowded Martyrs’ Graveyard; the second found at midnight, abandoned on a concrete sidewalk in the heart of New Delhi.

As this ravishing, deeply humane novel braids these lives together, it reinvents what a novel can do and can be. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness demonstrates on every page the miracle of Arundhati Roy’s storytelling gifts.

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

AR is the voice of her generation and its politics.

A web of stories, each fantastical and real, showcasing humanity with love, pettiness and sometimes hate. The individual against a tide!