Activist and Author Arundhati Roy to Publish First Novel in 20 Years

By teleSUR

04 October 16

“The God of Small Things” was published in 1997 and won the Booker Prize the same year.

he indomitable Indian author and activist Arundhati Roy is publishing her first work of fiction in nearly two decades.

Penguin Random House U.K. said Monday that her new novel “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness” will be published in June 2017; Her first novel, “The God of Small Things” was released in 1997 and won her the Booker Prize that year.

“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 and that I have found my publishers,” Roy said in a statement.

While Roy had a colorful history of activism, writing and acting that preceded the publication of “The God of Small Things,” her international acclaim mushroomed following its release while her public appearances in North America and the U.K. are typically sold-out affairs.

Roy has written a spate of non-fiction works in the last two decades, including “Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes On Democracy,” a collection of essays about India’s marginalized communities, “Walking With The Comrades” about the country’s Maoist rebels, “An Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire” about the imperialist U.S invasion in Iraq, and “Capitalism: A Ghost Story”, a book detailing the horrors of capitalism from Delhi to D.C.

The U.K.-based publishing house also said a new collection of essays by Roy and John Cusack about their meeting with whistleblower Edward Snowden, called “Things That Can And Cannot Be Said,” would be published later this week.