The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Arundhati Roy · b. 1961 · India

Why it matters

A hijra, a resistance fighter, and an abandoned baby cross paths from Old Delhi to Kashmir. Roy's sprawling second novel, twenty years after her first, gathers modern India's outcasts and conflicts into one teeming, tender chorus.

At a glance

Sprawling, digressive multi-strand structure spanning decades and a huge cast of characters.