The Ministry of Utmost Happiness – Arundhati Roy

The Ministry of Utmost Joy - Arundhati Roy
The Ministry of Utmost Joy – Arundhati Roy

I loved Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things and have vivid memories of devouring it on a wet afternoon in a guest house in northern Laos many moons ago.

Twenty years later, and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is equally wonderful, albeit a long novel with difficult themes: Insurgency in Kashmir, Indian Army torture and murder, the rise of Hindu nationalism in India, ethnic and religious conflicts between Hindu, Muslim and Sikh communities, the extremes of poverty and wealth.

But there’s plenty of love and joy in there too, revolving around the outcast communities of Old Delhi.

Publisher page: The Ministry of Utmost Happiness – Arundhati Roy

Anita Felicelli puts it far better than I can in her review: Outside Language and Power: The Mastery of Arundhati Roy’s “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness” – LA Review of Books, 21 June 2017