In the wake of the fame granted by her bestselling, Booker-winning debut novel, The God of Small Things, Roy has mostly turned her writing to political reporting and activism. But the death of her mother, a larger-than-life figure who left her feckless husband and built an acclaimed school from the sheer force of her will while cascading a constant stream of insults toward her own children, drove Roy to tell the story of her own life. It’s dramatic, funny, thoughtful, and more earthily practical than her lush fiction—especially when narrated in her own drily witty voice in the audiobook. As domineering as “Mrs. Roy” was (she commanded her children to call her the same name her other students used)—”my shelter and my storm,” her daughter says—Arundhati herself is an equally forceful figure, making her way out of that storm and then reckoning with the surprising dangers of her own fame and fortune. It’s marvelous.
—Tom, Phinney Books, Seattle, WA
Find the book at Phinney Books and other independent bookstores, or download the very enjoyable audiobook from Libro.fm.
