二十年前，她的首部作品 The God of Small Things（微物之神）获得曼克大奖，全美图书奖。
二十年后，她的第二部作品问世，发行当月就被当选亚马逊月度选书，一个月后成为2017 年中选书最佳。
即使在那些灵魂的内心深处，他们追求的只是爱与幸福的容身之处
阶级、性别与种族文化 这些继承而来的重重身份
既是令人安然的归属，也是通往自由最艰难的路途
这是一个政治、人性、爱恋和巨大伤痛相互交错的故事。印度作家Arundhati Roy以复杂的叙事和充满生命力的文字，再次展现了令人惊异的文学天赋，刻划出一个矛盾、破碎而美丽的世界。
Anjum，一个被以男性身份抚养长大的双性人，决意拥抱自己的女性身份，她辗转回到了家族公墓，在墓园拼凑搭建了栖身之所；Tilo爱上了克什米尔社运份子Musa Yeswi，她因而卷入独立运动，甚至被捕。当一个被抛弃的女婴出现在城市垃圾堆中，Anjum和Tilo都宣称孩子是自己的──她们的人生于是在此相会。
在这部小说中，Roy并列使用第一人称叙述，融合自身从《微物之神》到最新小说作品问世的二十年间，投身社会运动、致力于观察和批判社会现况的背景，写下在印度社会的紧张关系和政治角力下，无数人生彼此交织的动人故事。在这个源于死亡，也终于死亡的故事中，以文字建构了一个令人着迷的世界，她笔下的人物在其中跨越了种族、信仰、性别的界限，去寻找生命的意义、爱与终极的幸福。
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
AR201702
by Arundhati Roy
Print Length: 465 pages
Publication Date: June 6, 2017
To read The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is to immerse yourself in years of India’s religious, political, and cultural changes and to feel it all through the narrative of an incredible cast of characters. What becomes apparent throughout their individual stories is that power and belief are malleable, that suffering does not end but merely changes hands, and what is revered can easily become reviled. The latter shows up most clearly for Anjum, formerly Aftab, who becomes a famous Hijra in Delhi, only to later find herself keeper of a graveyard sanctum for others who are no longer welcome in the new society. Yes, there is a lot of violence and heartbreak in this novel, but Roy also suffuses it with humor, irony, and --more than anything-- the ability of love and acceptance to heal the broken. Even when, or perhaps,especially when, it comes from places one would never expect. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is complex and compassionate, and the heart and soul that Arundhati Roy so obviously gave to it is worth every one of the many years it’s taken to give us another fictional masterpiece.
--Seira Wilson, The Amazon Book Review
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