Arundhati Roy Announces New Novel After Twenty Years

Photo: Arundhati Roy (c) Mayank Austen Soofi

It is hard to believe that it has been twenty years since the publication of Arundhati Roy’s first (and until now, only) novel, The God of Small things. Like, I feel sure, most readers, I can still remember exactly where I first read it and how I felt while reading it. It is one of those very rare novels which somehow enters the mind, the body, the imagination – indeed the soul --and takes up residence, seemingly becoming a part of the reader’s DNA. 

So it was with the utmost excitement that I turned the first page of the manuscript of Arundhati’s new novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. Having worked with Arundhati for a long time, as publisher of her non-fiction, I knew that the novel was coming – and that she had read some aloud to John Berger on a visit to his home – but I had no idea, last summer, how close she was to finishing it.

And then, almost miraculously, in late September, there was the novel: 311 pages of manuscript, neatly spiral-bound in black wire. I dropped everything and dived straight in.

Two days later, still half-inhabiting the world of the novel, I sat down at my desk and wrote:

I can’t wait for other readers to share this experience, and it isn’t too long now to wait. The novel is at first proof stage and we look forward to sharing the book soon. Publication is in June, but in the meantime, here is the beautiful cover of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, which is being shared by all of the novel’s publishers worldwide:

Simon Prosser, Publishing Director Hamish Hamilton