The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

A Novel

De: Arundhati Roy

Narrado por: Arundhati Roy

2017 Man Booker Prize Longlist

2018 Women's Prize for Fiction Longlist

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is a dazzling new novel by the internationally celebrated author of The God of Small Things. It takes us on an intimate journey of many years across the Indian subcontinent—from the cramped neighborhoods of Old Dehli 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 richly complex lives together, it reinvents what a novel can do and can be. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness demonstrates the miracle of Arundhati Roy's storytelling gifts.

©2017 Arundhati Roy (P)2025 Penguin Canada

Reseñas de la Crítica

One of The Globe and Mail's 100 Best Books of 2017

A Financial Times Best Books of 2017 for Fiction

A New York Times Editor's Choice pick

A Chatelaine 20 Best Books of 2017 selection

A Now Toronto 10 Best Books of 2017 selection

An Economic Times top-selling books of 2017 selection

A National Post Best Books of the Year selection

An Elle Magazine book club recommendation

“Truly, this is a remarkable creation, a story both intimate and international, swelling with comedy and outrage, a tale that cradles the world’s most fragile people even while it assaults the Subcontinent’s most brutal villains.” —Ron Charles, Washington Post

"With its insights into human nature, its memorable characters and its luscious prose, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is well worth the 20-year wait.” —Time