New Book: Utmost Happiness For Arundhati Roy Fans

Arundhati Roy is to publish her second piece of fiction, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, in June 2017, twenty years after she won the Booker prize for her first novel, The God of Small Things. The book will be published by Hamish Hamilton UK, and Penguin India.

"I am glad to report that the mad souls (even the wicked ones) in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness have found a way into the world" Roy said in the press release put out by Penguin India.

Image credit: Wikipedia

Here are five things to know about this litterateur:

1. She is a well-known political activist and is known for her scathing articles and non-fiction books. She has expressed her belief in the idea of freedom for Kashmir from India, is critical of the  Indian government's nuclear policies, has criticised the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and has fought against the building of the Narmada Dam, for which she was imprisoned at Tihar jail for one day.

2. She dabbled in various things in her early career: She studied architecture, was an aerobics instructor, and wrote screenplays. She won the National Film Award for Best Screenplay in 1989 for 'In Which Annie Gave It Those Ones'.

3. She has recently released another non-fiction book, Things That Can and Cannot be Said, co-authored by actor John Cusack. The book was based on a conversation they and Daniel Ellsberg had with Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who leaked classified data from the NSA. The trio travelled to Moscow to meet with Snowden.

4. She has adopted two  stray dogs and named Begum Filthy Jaan, and Maati Ki Laal, according to an interview with Elle.

5.  Her favourite writers are William Shakespeare, Rudyard Kipling, the poet Rilke, Vladimir Nabokov, John Berger, James Baldwin and Toni Morrison.

Feature Image Credit: News 18