20 years after ‘The God of Small Things’.
Booker Prize-winning writer Arundhati Roy has announced the release of her second novel, titled ‘The Ministry of Utmost Happiness’, to be published in June, 2017.
“I am glad to report that the mad souls (even the wicked ones) in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness have found a way into the world and that I have found my publishers,” Roy said, in a statement.
Roy’s second much-awaited novel comes 20 years after her debut, Booker Prize-winning novel ‘The God of Small Things’ was published. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness will be published by Hamish Hamilton UK and Penguin India, reported The Hindustan Times.
“To publish this book is both a pleasure and an honor. What an incredible book it is — on multiple levels; one of the finest we have read in recent times,” Simon Prosser, publishing director of Hamish Hamilton & Penguin Books UK; and Meru Gokhale, from Penguin Random House India, said in a statement.
The 54-year-old writer has authored several non-fiction books since her debut in 1997, including ‘Capitalism: A Ghost Story, ‘The end of Imagination’, ‘The Algebra of Infinite Justice’, and ‘Kashmir: The Case of Freedom’.
“Only Arundhati could have written this novel,” Roy’s literary agent David Godwin said.
Describing the novel as “utterly original,” Godwin said “It has been 20 years in the making. And well worth the wait.”
“The writing is extraordinary, and so too are the characters – brought to life with such generosity and empathy, in language of the utmost freshness, joyfully reminding us that words are alive too, that they can wake us up and lend us new ways of seeing, feeling, hearing, engaging,” added the statement of the publishers.