Aravind Adiga

Few countries celebrate religious and cultural festivals with greater passion, imagination, and joy than India. And among the many festivals of this gloriously diverse, multicultural nation is Christmas. The Christian communities of India celebrate the birth of Christ with food, music, lights, prayer, family gatherings, charity, and other age-old traditions. This anthology captures the distinctive magic of Christmas in India and in the Indian diaspora with a splendid collection of essays, stories, poems, and hymns―both in English and translated from India's other languages. It includes works by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, Booker Prize winners Salman Rushdie and Aravind Adiga, Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri, Khushwant Singh, Jerry Pinto, Damodar Mauzo, Vivek Menezes, Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, and others writing about Christmas in Goa, Kerala, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, as well as in London and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

DANNY - DHANANJAYA RAJARATNAM - IS AN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT IN SYDNEY, DENIED REFUGEE STATUS AFTER HE HAS FLED FROM HIS NATIVE SRI LANKA. WORKING AS A CLEANER, LIVING OUT OF A GROCERY STOREROOM, FOR THREE YEARS HE'S BEEN TRYING TO CREATE A NEW IDENTITY FOR HIMSELF. AND NOW, WITH HIS BELOVED VEGAN GIRLFRIEND, SONJA, WITH HIS HIDDEN ACCENT AND HIGHLIGHTS IN HIS HAIR, HE IS AS CLOSE AS HE HAS EVER COME TO LIVING A NORMAL AUSTRALIAN LIFE. BUT THEN ONE MORNING, DANNY LEARNS A FEMALE CLIENT OF HIS HAS BEEN MURDERED. WHEN DANNY RECOGNIZES A JACKET LEFT AT THE MURDER SCENE, HE BELIEVES IT BELONGS TO ANOTHER OF HIS CLIENTS ? A DOCTOR WITH WHOM HE KNOWS THE WOMAN WAS HAVING AN AFFAIR. SUDDENLY DANNY IS CONFRONTED WITH A CHOICE: COME FORWARD WITH HIS KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE CRIME AND RISK BEING DEPORTED, OR SAY NOTHING, AND LET JUSTICE GO UNDONE? OVER THE COURSE OF A SINGLE DAY, EVALUATING THE WEIGHT OF HIS PAST, HIS DREAMS FOR THE FUTURE, AND THE UNPREDICTABLE, OFTEN ABSURD REALITY OF LIVING INVISIBLY AND UNDOCUMENTED, HE MUST WRESTLE WITH HIS CONSCIENCE AND DECIDE IF A PERSON WITHOUT RIGHTS STILL HAS RESPONSIBILITIES. PROPULSIVE, INSIGHTFUL, AND FULL OF ARAVIND ADIGA'S SIGNATURE WIT AND MAGIC, AMNESTY IS BOTH A TIMELESS MORAL STRUGGLE AND A UNIVERSAL STORY WITH PARTICULAR URGENCY TODAY.

An "urgent and significant book that] speaks to our times" (The New York Times Book Review) from the bestselling, Man Booker Prize-winning author of The White Tiger and Selection Day about a young illegal immigrant who must decide whether to report crucial information about a murder--and thereby risk deportation.Danny--formerly Dhananjaya Rajaratnam--is an illegal immigrant in Sydney, Australia, denied refugee status after he fled from Sri Lanka. Working as a cleaner, living out of a grocery storeroom, for three years he's been trying to create a new identity for himself. And now, with his beloved vegan girlfriend, Sonja, with his hidden accent and highlights in his hair, he is as close as he has ever come to living a normal life. But then one morning, Danny learns a female client of his has been murdered. The deed was done with a knife, at a creek he'd been to with her before; and a jacket was left at the scene, which he believes belongs to another of his clients--a doctor with whom Danny knows the woman was having an affair. Suddenly Danny is confronted with a choice: Come forward with his knowledge about the crime and risk being deported? Or say nothing, and let justice go undone? Over the course of this day, evaluating the weight of his past, his dreams for the future, and the unpredictable, often absurd reality of living invisibly and undocumented, he must wrestle with his conscience and decide if a person without rights still has responsibilities. "Searing and inventive," Amnesty is a timeless and universal story that succeeds at "illuminating the courage of displaced peoples and the cruelties of those who conspire against them" (Star Tribune, Minneapolis).

A riveting, suspenseful and exuberant novel from the bestselling, Man Booker Prize-winning author of The White Tiger and Selection Day about a young undocumented immigrant who must decide whether to report crucial information about a murder and risk deportation.

***NOMINATED FOR AN ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY******NOW A MAJOR NETFLIX PRODUCTION STARING PRIYANKA CHOPRA AND PRODUCED BY AVA DUVERNAY***'As angry, smart and dark as Parasite.' Standard'The anti-Slumdog Millionaire' Hollywood Reporter___________Here's a strange fact: murder a man, and you feel responsible for his life - possessive, even. You know more about him than his father and mother; they knew his foetus, but you know his corpse.Meet Balram Halwai, the 'White Tiger': servant, philosopher, entrepreneur... murderer. Balram was born in a backwater village on the River Ganges, the son of a rickshaw-puller. He works in a teashop, crushing coal and wiping tables, but nurses a dream of escape. When he learns that a rich village landlord needs a chauffeur, he takes his opportunity, and is soon on his way to Delhi at the wheel of a Honda. Amid cockroaches, call-centres, thirty-six-million gods, slums, shopping malls, and crippling traffic jams, Balram comes to see how the Tiger might slip the bars of his cage.

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE The stunning Booker Prize-winning novel from the author of Amnesty and Selection Day that critics have likened to Richard Wright's Native Son, The White Tiger follows a darkly comic Bangalore driver through the poverty and corruption of modern India's caste society. "This is the authentic voice of the Third World, like you've never heard it before" (John Burdett, Bangkok 8). The white tiger of this novel is Balram Halwai, a poor Indian villager whose great ambition leads him to the zenith of Indian business culture, the world of the Bangalore entrepreneur. On the occasion of the president of China's impending trip to Bangalore, Balram writes a letter to him describing his transformation and his experience as driver and servant to a wealthy Indian family, which he thinks exemplifies the contradictions and complications of Indian society. Recalling The Death of Vishnu and Bangkok 8 in ambition, scope, The White Tiger is narrative genius with a mischief and personality all its own. Amoral, irreverent, deeply endearing, and utterly contemporary, this novel is an international publishing sensation--and a startling, provocative debut.

A Guardian, Financial Times, The Millions, Vulture, and Buzzfeed's Most Anticipated of 2020'An immigrant’s view conveyed with authority and wit . . . Adiga is a startlingly fine observer, and a complicator, in the manner of V.S. Naipaul.’ New York TimesFrom the bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of The White Tiger and Selection Day, Aravind Adiga, comes the story of an undocumented immigrant who becomes the only witness to a crime and must face an impossible moral dilemma.Danny – Dhananjaya Rajaratnam – is an undocumented immigrant in Sydney, denied refugee status after he has fled from his native Sri Lanka. Working as a cleaner, living out of a grocery storeroom, for three years he’s been trying to create a new identity for himself. And now, with his beloved vegan girlfriend, Sonja, with his hidden accent and highlights in his hair, he is as close as he has ever come to living a normal Australian life.But then one morning, Danny learns a female client of his has been murdered. When Danny recognizes a jacket left at the murder scene, he believes it belongs to another of his clients — a doctor with whom he knows the woman was having an affair. Suddenly Danny is confronted with a choice: come forward with his knowledge about the crime and risk being deported, or say nothing, and let justice go undone? Over the course of a single day, evaluating the weight of his past, his dreams for the future, and the unpredictable, often absurd reality of living invisibly and undocumented, he must wrestle with his conscience and decide if a person without rights still has responsibilities.Suspenseful, propulsive, and full of Aravind Adiga’s signature wit and magic, Amnesty is both a timeless moral struggle and a universal story with particular urgency today.

A riveting, suspenseful and exuberant novel from the bestselling, Man Booker Prize-winning author of &i>The White Tiger&/i> and &i>Selection Day&/i> about a young undocumented immigrant who must decide whether to report crucial information about a murder and risk deportation.

From the bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of The White Tiger and Amnesty, a "ferociously brilliant" (Slate) novel about two brothers coming of age in a Mumbai slum, raised by their crazy, obsessive father to be cricket champions. *A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES * AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR * A NEW YORK TIMES and WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE BOOK Manjunath Kumar is fourteen and living in a slum in Mumbai. He knows he is good at cricket--if not as good as his older brother, Radha. He knows that he fears and resents his domineering and cricket-obsessed father, admires his brilliantly talented sibling, and is fascinated by curious scientific facts and the world of CSI. But there are many things, about himself and about the world, that he doesn't know. Sometimes it even seems as though everyone has a clear idea of who Manju should be, except Manju himself. When Manju meets Radha's great rival, a mysterious Muslim boy privileged and confident in all the ways Manju is not, everything in Manju's world begins to change, and he is faced by decisions that will challenge his sense of self and of the world around him. Filled with unforgettable characters from across India's social strata--the old scout everyone calls Tommy Sir; Anand Mehta, the big-dreaming investor; Sofia, a wealthy, beautiful girl and the boys' biggest fan--Selection Day "brings a family, a city, and an entire country to scabrous and antic life" (Chicago Tribune).

'Novel of the year was Aravind Adiga’s Selection Day . . . Cricket never fails to bring out the best in novelists . . . and this is a fine study of the very different fates of two Indian boys blessed with supreme talent. Everything (the dialogue, psychological analysis, social portrayal) is done in a wonderful pacy narrative style.’ – Declan Kiberd, The Irish Times ‘Books of the Year’From the Booker Prize winning author of The White Tiger'The most exciting novelist writing in English today' – A. N. WilsonManjunath Kumar is fourteen. He knows he is good at cricket – if not as good as his elder brother Radha. He knows that he fears and resents his domineering and cricket-obsessed father, admires his brilliantly talented sibling and is fascinated by the world of CSI and by curious and interesting scientific facts. But there are many things, about himself and about the world, that he doesn't know . . . Sometimes it seems as though everyone around him has a clear idea of who Manju should be, except Manju himself.When Manju begins to get to know Radha's great rival, a boy as privileged and confident as Manju is not, everything in Manju's world begins to change and he is faced with decisions that will challenge both his sense of self and of the world around him . . .

From the bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of The White Tiger and Amnesty, a "ferociously brilliant" (Slate) novel about two brothers coming of age in a Mumbai slum, raised by their crazy, obsessive father to be cricket champions. *A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES * AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR * A NEW YORK TIMES and WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE BOOK Manjunath Kumar is fourteen and living in a slum in Mumbai. He knows he is good at cricket--if not as good as his older brother, Radha. He knows that he fears and resents his domineering and cricket-obsessed father, admires his brilliantly talented sibling, and is fascinated by curious scientific facts and the world of CSI. But there are many things, about himself and about the world, that he doesn't know. Sometimes it even seems as though everyone has a clear idea of who Manju should be, except Manju himself. When Manju meets Radha's great rival, a mysterious Muslim boy privileged and confident in all the ways Manju is not, everything in Manju's world begins to change, and he is faced by decisions that will challenge his sense of self and of the world around him. Filled with unforgettable characters from across India's social strata--the old scout everyone calls Tommy Sir; Anand Mehta, the big-dreaming investor; Sofia, a wealthy, beautiful girl and the boys' biggest fan--Selection Day "brings a family, a city, and an entire country to scabrous and antic life" (Chicago Tribune). Aravind Adiga's "voice is so exuberant, his plotting so jaunty, that the sadness of this story feels as though it is accumulating just outside our peripheral vision" (The Washington Post). It is, simply, "extraordinary" (The Atlantic).

A moving and beautifully observed novel, of adolescence, ambition and self-realization, of fathers and sons, set in contemporary Bombay, by the Man Booker Prize winning author of The White Tiger and Last Man in Tower.

From the Booker Prize-winning author of The White Tiger, a stunning novel of greed and murder in contemporary Mumbai. At the heart of Adiga's gripping second novel ("his plots don't unwind, they surge" --USA Today) are two equally compelling men, poised for a showdown. Real estate developer Dharmen Shah rose from nothing to create an empire and hopes to seal his legacy with a luxury building named the Shanghai. Larger-than-life Shah is a dangerous man to refuse. But he meets his match in retired schoolteacher Masterji. Shah offers a generous buyout to Masterji and his neighbors in a once respectable, now crumbling apartment building on whose site Shah's high-rise would be built. They can't believe their good fortune. Except, that is, for Masterji, who refuses to abandon the building he has long called home. As the demolition deadline looms, desires mount; neighbors become enemies, and acquaintances turn into conspirators who risk losing their humanity to score their payday. Here is a richly told, suspense-fueled story of ordinary people pushed to their limits in a place that knows none: the new India as only Aravind Adiga could explore--and expose--it.

Nestling on India's southern coast lies the town of Kittur. Ranging through the city's streets and schoolyards, bedrooms and businesses, its inner workings and its outer limits, through the myriad and distinctive voices of its inhabitants, Aravind Adiga brings an entire world vividly and unforgettably to life.

WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2008Balram Halwai is the White Tiger - the smartest boy in his village. His family is too poor for him to afford for him to finish school and he has to work in a teashop, breaking coals and wiping tables. But Balram gets his break when a rich man hires him as a chauffeur, and takes him to live in Delhi. The city is a revelation. As he drives his master to shopping malls and call centres, Balram becomes increasingly aware of immense wealth and opportunity all around him, while knowing that he will never be able to gain access to that world. As Balram broods over his situation, he realizes that there is only one way he can become part of this glamorous new India - by murdering his master. The White Tiger presents a raw and unromanticised India, both thrilling and shocking - from the desperate, almost lawless villages along the Ganges, to the booming Wild South of Bangalore and its technology and outsourcing centres. The first-person confession of a murderer, The White Tiger is as compelling for its subject matter as for the voice of its narrator - amoral, cynical, unrepentant, yet deeply endearing.