The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Meer over het boek

A richly moving new novel from the author of the Booker Prize-winning debut transports readers across a subcontinent over many years, delving into the lives of gloriously rendered characters in search of safety, meaning, and love. In a graveyard outside Old Delhi, a resident unrolls a threadbare Persian carpet. A baby unexpectedly appears on a sidewalk just after midnight. A bereaved father writes a letter to his daughter about those who attended her funeral. A lone woman chain-smokes while revisiting old notebooks in her apartment. At the Jannat Guest House, two lifelong acquaintances sleep entwined, as if newly met. This braided narrative is both a love story and a provocation, inventive and emotionally engaging. It unfolds with whispers and shouts, joyous tears and bitter laughs. The heroes, both present and departed, have been shaped by a fractured world yet mended by love, refusing to surrender. The novel explores how to tell a shattered story by becoming everybody and everything. Humane and sensuous, it showcases the miracle of the author's storytelling gifts on every page.