Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Audiobook16 hours
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: A novel
Published by Penguin Random House Audio
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
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.
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.
Unavailable
Related to The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
Related audiobooks
Mountain Laurel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Man Who Would Be King and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Midnight's Children Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Arabian Nights Entertainments Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThriving: 1920-1939: Book Two of the Understanding Ursula Trilogy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn the Company of Strangers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWelcome to Bordertown: Special Edition: New Stories and Poems of the Borderlands Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shiloh Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Turkish Tales: Poetry of Lord Byron Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWelcome to Bordertown: New Stories and Poems of the Borderlands Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Man Who Would Be King Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Violent Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All Through the Night Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In the Shadow of the Banyan: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Miguel's Brave Knight Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If I Were You: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Man Who Would Be King, The (Unabridged) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDance of the Jakaranda Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dance or Die: From Stateless Refugee to International Ballet Star A MEMOIR Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Journey: The boy who lost everything... and the horses who saved him Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Best of Robert Service Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Long Way Home Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Only the Worthy (The Way of Steel—Book 1) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Never Forget You Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsQuill of the Dove Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe House on Sun Street Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Saving Eridu Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Cultural Heritage Fiction For You
Lovecraft Country: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stationery Shop Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Night Watchman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poppy War: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Council of Dolls: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The City of Brass: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tattooist of Auschwitz: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sunshine Nails: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond the Rice Fields Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Evil Eye: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Woman Is No Man: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Zone of Interest Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lawn Boy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inconvenient Daughter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sicilian Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Memory Keeper of Kyiv: A powerful, important historical novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mountains Sing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mules and Men Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hula: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Family Chao Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dona Cleanwell Leaves Home: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret Keeper of Jaipur Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois: An Oprah’s Book Club Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Kingdom of Copper: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House Girl: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Künstlers in Paradise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Minor Detail Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Destroyer of Worlds: A Return to Lovecraft Country Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
Rating: 3.9444444444444446 out of 5 stars
4/5
18 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A riveting tale that weaves the story of those battling souls in India that have no voice and are demonised, villified, shunned and tortured.