WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An affluent Indian family is forever changed by one fateful day in 1969, from the author of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness“[The God of Small Things] offers such magic, mystery, and sadness that, literally, this reader turned the last page and decided to reread it. Immediately. It’s that haunting.”—USA TodayCompared favorably to the … haunting.”—USA Today
Compared favorably to the works of Faulkner and Dickens, Arundhati Roy’s modern classic is equal parts powerful family saga, forbidden love story, and piercing political drama. The seven-year-old twins Estha and Rahel see their world shaken irrevocably by the arrival of their beautiful young cousin, Sophie. It is an event that will lead to an illicit liaison and tragedies accidental and intentional, exposing “big things [that] lurk unsaid” in a country drifting dangerously toward unrest.
Lush, lyrical, and unnerving, The God of Small Things is an award-winning landmark that started for its author an esteemed career of fiction and political commentary that continues unabated.
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The most devastating – and most beautifully-written – book I’ve read this year. The narrative is unapologetic and poetic, interweaving childlike euphemism with vivid grotesqueness, and past timelines with the present.
The narrative follows a set of twins and their wealthy family in Kerala, India – but if you’re considering reading this book, pay …
Beautifully written. This is one of my favorite books. There is a constant re-telling of an event by different characters that lulls the reader into missing the obvious..
It’s an absolute delight! The writing is so lyrical that the words seem to float and weave their own music.
“…the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick …
I listened to this book with audible and listening to the storyteller was magical. I loved this book.
This is my introduction to Arundhati Roi. She writes in several styles in one volume, which intrigues me. She weaves seemingly disparate stories to create both singular compelling narratives and surprising intersections. Having grown up in middle-class American white privilege, I know so very little of privation or marginalization. I feel as …
I had it removed from my Kindle.
hard to remember characters, some part are truly funny, but I couldn’t finish it because
it got boring,
This is not an easy book to review. Every single phrase is exquisite, memorable, and deserving to be quoted here. The imagery is described with originality and creativity that left me breathless. Yet I almost didn’t complete it because the promised action, the climactic event, was postponed beyond my patience. I did get to know the characters …
Filthy language and a story I could never care about
I gave it 4 stars because the book is so beautifully written. The language is delicious. However, I quit reading with only 20% left. The story became a curious combination of tedious and depressingly dark. I don’t always need “happily ever after” but neither do I need to become increasingly depressed as the book nears it’s end.
It has an awkward style, and was way too slow getting beyond setting/description to a real story. I quit after 50-60 pages.
Beautiful creation. I suggest you join NōvelStar’s writing competition this April.
An astonishingly lyrical novel, Roy’s Booker winner spins us around a tragedy in southern India through the fizzing, fascinating vision of two small children. It’s a book of terrible sadness, but what it understands more than most tragedies is the joy and love that underpins that sadness.
Hands down my favorite book. Arundhati Roy is brilliant. She masters language in a way I have never seen, and creates a body of work that is truly original.
Sometimes the writing in this book just leaves me breathless.
I’d recommend this to anyone who loves playful language, rich characterization, and a powerful story.
Absolutely wonderful book full of fantastic detail and characters. Roy brings India to life page by page.
I can’t rate the book cause I read only 50 pages I don’t get concept of this book. My granddaughter read this book last yr in 6th grade. She enjoyed it got it she rate it 5 This book is for our book club this month.
THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS by Arundhati Roy August 2016
A book saturated with simile and metaphors, adjectives and descriptions of Kerala, India and its people. It describes so much of the beauty, but also the lurid ugliness of humanity. The writing is ornate and the plot jumps unexpectedly between 1969 and the present. This is not a leisurely …
Powerful and original work with beautiful story-telling