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The God of Small Things Audiobook
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Publisher Description
The New York Times bestselling and Booker Prize–winning novel about an Indian family in tragic decline that introduced the world to the voice of Arundhati Roy
Likened to the works of Faulkner and Dickens when it was first published twenty years ago, this extraordinarily accomplished debut novel is a brilliantly plotted story of forbidden love and piercing political drama, centered on the tragic decline of an Indian family in the state of Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India. Armed only with the invincible innocence of children, the twins Rahel and Esthappen fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family—their lonely, lovely mother Ammu (who loves by night the man her children love by day), their blind grandmother Mammachi (who plays Handel on her violin), their beloved uncle Chacko (Rhodes scholar, pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher), their enemy Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grandaunt), and the ghost of an imperial entomologist’s moth (with unusually dense dorsal tufts).
When their English cousin and her mother arrive on a Christmas visit, the twins learn that things can change in a day. That lives can twist into new, ugly shapes, even cease forever. The brilliantly plotted story uncoils with an agonizing sense of foreboding and inevitability. Yet nothing prepares you for what lies at the heart of it.
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“Roy conjures a whoosh of wordplay that rises from the pages like a brilliant jazz improvisation…At once exotic and familiar to the Western reader, written in an English that’s completely new and invigorated by the Asian Indian influences of culture and language.”
— Amazon.com
Quotes
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“A novel of real ambition must invent its own language, and this one does.”
— New Yorker -
“Outstanding. A glowing first novel.”
— Newsweek -
“Dazzling…As subtle as it is powerful.”
— New York Times -
“Splendid and stunning.”
— Washington Post Book World -
“Offers such magic, mystery, and sadness that, literally, this reader turned the last page and decided to reread it. Immediately. It’s that hauntingly wonderful.”
— USA Today -
“This story shows that sister relationships are often complex but never static, as the ways life affects each character also makes the bond closer…The God of Small Things is also an unforgettable portrait of family.”
— BookRiot -
“A brilliantly constructed first novel…In part a perfectly paced mystery story, in part an Indian Wuthering Heights: a gorgeous and seductive fever dream of a novel, and a truly spectacular debut.”
— Kirkus Reviews
Awards
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Winner of the Man Booker Prize
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A New York Times bestseller
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New York Times Notable Book of the Year
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Winner of the 2017 Voice Arts Award for Classics
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A BookRiot Pick for Books about Sisters
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A Bustle Pick of 12 Modern Books That Will Become Classics
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An Electric Literature Pick of Books about the Connection between Twins
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A Kirkus Reviews Pick of Books You Should Have Read by Now
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A New York Public Library Staff Pick of Favorite Books of the Last 125 Years
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A London Times Pick of the 50 Best Novels of the Last 100 Years
The God of Small Things Listener Reviews
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Tracy Ferragamo, 1/17/2024
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kim topping, 6/17/2022
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Michael Oliver, 8/15/2018
About Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, as well as several nonfiction titles. She was trained as an architect and has worked as a production designer and screenwriter for two films.
About Sneha Mathan
Sneha Mathan is a voice actor and audiobook narrator. Her audiobook work has received several Earphones awards, and she is a three-time Audie Award finalist. She lives in Seattle.