Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy is an Indian author and political activist whose fiction and non-fiction have made her one of the most important and controversial literary voices in the world. Her writing combines extraordinary literary gifts with fearless political engagement, and she has used her platform to challenge power, defend the marginalised, and speak uncomfortable truths. Born in Shillong, Meghalaya in 1961, Roy grew up in Aymanam, Kerala, and studied architecture at the School of Planning and Architecture in Delhi. She worked on screenplays and journalism before publishing her first novel. The God of Small Things (1997) won the Man Booker Prize and became an international sensation — a lyrical, devastating novel about twins Estha and Rahel, whose lives are shaped by the rigid caste system, forbidden love, and the political upheavals of 1960s Kerala. The novel sold over eight million copies and was translated into over forty languages. Roy then turned to political writing and activism, publishing essay collections including The Algebra of Infinite Justice, An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire, Listening to Grasshoppers, and Capitalism: A Ghost Story. She has been a vocal critic of India's nuclear weapons programme, large-dam projects, Hindu nationalism, and the treatment of Dalits and Kashmiris. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017) was her long-awaited second novel — a sprawling, ambitious work set across Delhi and Kashmir. AZADI: Freedom, Fascism, Fiction (2020) collected her political essays on freedom, nationalism, and dissent. Roy writes with a literary brilliance that is rare in political writing and a political courage that is rare in literary fiction. The audiobook editions of Roy's works are powerful and compelling. Her books and audiobooks are essential — the work of a writer who believes that literature and justice are inseparable.