The ministry of utmost happiness : a novel Cover Image

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The ministry of utmost happiness : a novel / Arundhati Roy.

Summary:

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. 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 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.

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness takes us on a journey of many years – the story spooling outwards from the cramped neighbourhoods of Old Delhi into the burgeoning new metropolis and beyond, to the Valley of Kashmir and the forests of Central India, where war is peace and peace is war, and where, from time to time, ‘normalcy’ is declared. Anjum, who used to be Aftab, unrolls a threadbare carpet in a city graveyard that she calls home. A baby appears quite suddenly on a pavement, a little after midnight, in a crib of litter. The enigmatic S. Tilottama is as much of a presence as she is an absence in the lives of the three men who love her.

Record details

ISBN: 9780525434818
ISBN: 052543481X
Physical Description: 449 pages ; 21 cm
Edition: First Vintage books edition.
Publisher: New York : Vintage Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2018.

Content descriptions

Formatted Contents Note:	Where do old birds go to die? -- Khwabgah -- The nativity -- Dr. Azad Bhartiya -- The slow-goose chase -- Some questions for later -- The landlord -- The tenant -- The untimely death of Miss Jebeen the First -- The ministry of utmost happiness -- The landlord -- Guih Kyom.
Awards Note:	Booker Prize Nominee for Longlist (2017), National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee for Fiction (2017), Women's Prize for Fiction Nominee for Longlist (2018), Andrew Carnegie Medal Nominee for Fiction (2018), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fiction (2017)