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The God of Small Things
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The God of Small Things
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The God of Small Things
Audiobook (abridged)6 hours

The God of Small Things

Written by Arundhati Roy

Narrated by Sarita Choudhury

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

Born from two eggs in the one womb of their beloved mother Ammu, Rahel and Esthappen have little to cling to but each other, and the occasional joy that passes through their young lives like a cool breeze on a sweltering Indian day.When Ammu, divorced and disappointed, returns with the twins to her family home in southern India, their worlds begin to open wider, all the while closing in on them.

As the three arrive into the arms of Ammu's eccentric and unforgettable relatives, a tragedy begins to unfold that will propel them toward a fate that has perhaps stalked them from their inception. Yet, throughout the pain and hardships of things large and small, the humor, humanity, and ferociously perceptive intelligence only bestowed upon seven-year-olds shines gloriously through.

At the core of this extraordinary, bittersweet story is the unforgettable narrative voice of first-time novelist Arundhati Roy, a uniquely talented writer capable of moving us beyond words with the perfect sentence and a profoundly insightful wisdom that far surpasses her years.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperAudio
Release dateFeb 17, 2015
ISBN9780061142956
Unavailable
The God of Small Things
Author

Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy is an award-winning film-maker and a trained architect. She is the author of ‘The God of Small Things’ which won the 1997 Booker prize.

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Reviews for The God of Small Things

Rating: 3.892864940554822 out of 5 stars
4/5

3,785 ratings164 reviews

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  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    cannot connect with characters
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Jumped around too much and was hard to follow.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    At times, I found the language gimmicky and over-wrought. It shouted "look at me. How Clever I am..." but by the end, I was suitably impressed and on board with the outstanding reviews. Well done.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Roy’s debut novel, while written in luminous prose, was a challenge for me to follow in audio format. Roy takes an unusual – but not unheard of – non-sequential approach to the story: she starts the story with its ending in 1997 and, through a complex patchwork of 1969 flashbacks and segues into side stories, leads the reader to the start. I probably would have had an easier time following the shifting focus of the story if I had been reading it in print format, but no matter. At it’s heart, this is a multi-generational family saga virtually overflowing with themes to generate thought and discussion. The illicit breaking of the “Love Law” (theme of forbidden love) acts as the centre to the widening rippling rings of the story. Roy’s prose is lush and inviting, even when the story takes unpleasant, disturbing and tragic turns, while Roy skillfully maintains a sense of foreboding of something to come. It is a story where children lose their innocence and trust. Where cultures and language collide as Western influences permeates the Indian culture. Where sexual and caste conflict have wide reaching impact. Overall, a satisfying read that may have had a larger impact on me if I had chosen to read, instead of listen, to the story.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    young twins in India who grow up in a family that worships all things Anglo; especially The Sound of Music
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I've just finished this book for the third time. It blows me away every time....I get goosebumps reading the last few chapters in particular. The writing is stunningly beautiful....every page or so brings a new "favourite" quote. The story isn't told in a linear fashion, but as things become clearer, we have been shown so many layers of each character's feelings and motivations. Absolutely amazing...one of my all-time favourite books.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I came to this feast 20 years late, and it may take me twenty more to taste all that it has to offer. I don't know if at this point I have anything intelligent to say about the story - except that it seemed to me to capture as profoundly as anything I've read what it means to be human in all its horror and joy. Let me say a little about the experience of reading it. Several reviewers have said that as soon as they finished the book, they wanted immediately to read it through again. For me, that's not quite true. I may read it again, but the conclusion brought everything together so intensely that for now at least I don't feel the need or even desire to read it again. I feel that I want to, will have to, live with it for the rest of my life.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The God of Small Things I wasn't sure what to expect other than everyone raves about this author and I had to sit with it all a while to decide what I really felt about it. It's a powerful book and a little hard to read sometimes but also strangely beautiful. Trigger: death of a child. It's right in the first chapter that the girl dies at 9 years old, so I don't really consider it a spoiler. I know this isn't as common a trigger as say rape, but it's one of mine. Not everyone can stomach dead children in their pleasure reading. This is my first Read Harder 2017 book, it was the debut novel for Arundhati Roy. The writing is so beautiful that I was sucked in before I even knew what was going on. It was the way she described the twins right in the first five minutes of the audio. I did listen to it, which I don't recommend. The story shifts in time and the audio doesn't give good markers when the shift is happening. The other problem is that my copy (which came from the library and will make it into the hands of others so that's why this is really a problem) skipped sometimes. It was annoying but didn't make me not want to continue, just like when the deaths were mentioned there in the first five minutes of the 6 hours of audio. The reader, Sarita Choudhury, did a wonderful job. Since she is an established actress, though I didn't recognize her by name only face when I looked her up, one could hardly have expected less. The story itself is very uncomfortable to listen to but that doesn't lessen the experience. Sometimes we read difficult stories and it was especially trying as this was my audiobook while my print one was Burger’s Daughter, which is just as difficult for different reasons (it's about the antiapartheid movement in South Africa). The thing about it is that the story seems true to life. The moments come together in unexpected ways that mark the difference between punishment for one's actions and consequences for one's actions. Consequences can be so much harder because they can be so unexpected and so harsh sometimes. This is a book of consequences. As from the Goodreads blurb above from the book page, it's consequences for tampering with the love laws. I really loved the way the deliver included the "love laws". We see so much of this in lots of stories but it's not quite worded this way. There are consequences and sometimes they are things that characters can just deal with, and sometimes not tampering brings about the plot (looking at you, Wuthering Heights). The jumps in time aren't bad once I started to get a better feel for the rhythm, but I feel like I would have had some marker or something that would have suggested the shift and that would have made for an easier read. As it was, they made perfect sense within the story as it unraveled and we got to know the world everyone was living in. It may have just been backstory woven in as well, but the queues just weren't that obvious for me and I sometimes had to back up the story to figure out what I had missed. The characters were amazing, and not in that they're-all-good-people kind of way but more in the Gatsby way. No one is completely a good person (okay, I feel like one is but I won't tell you who). They are just people looking out for their interests individually and what the family does for them. Okay, the family part probably sounds harsh, but this is a complicated family that it doesn't seem like anyone wants to be a part of, so everyone is scrambling for some way to be themselves but can't do that on their own. You might think that they would work together because everyone gets further that way, but no. Because it's a true to life family and there is a lot of baggage here. Most of the baggage gets explained in the beginning though, which is part of how the back and forth in time or backstory confused me in the beginning. Everyone is at least a little broken and it all contributes to how they broke the love laws and why and how much. The pace is hard to describe because of the shifting time line and constant presence of backstory to different things. Don't get me wrong, all the backstory was 100% necessary and it moved in a fluid way. I think it's really the flow that messed me up sometimes because we would be with 30 year old Rahel and then young Rahel and wasn't sure where it happened. It moves along nicely, even though you know from the beginning where it's going. Except that it doesn't stop there and that was the point that I found especially horrifying and beautiful at the same time. I'm definitely going to continue reading Roy. Her style is just gorgeous. Seeing just the title of some of her other stories and how well this one read and having read some winners alongside her and recently, I wouldn't be surprised to find her on the Nobel Laureate list one day. As with the novels of those who have won, this was hard to read sometimes and harder to continue because of the pain it caused, but totally worth it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It took me months to get through this book even though the writing is phenomenal because the story is on the dark side. I put it down and read 4 or 5 other books in the meantime, but I never had trouble picking it up again. interestingly, the author has created the darkness of the book by including passages that are full of colour.It is stark contrast, then, when colours are absent from the text. I also love that the book is unapologetic about its setting - it is not American and it doesn't care if the reader is - culture, language, setting, none of it is explained for those unfamiliar with this part of the world which not typical for a book written in English that is not American or Western Europe. Not easy reading, but very rich with language and heavy with tragedy. Worthwhile reading.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I read this book many years ago for a book club and my opinion was mixed. I thought it was an interesting portrait of a specific time for India, but I wasn't overly impressed with the novel. But, I'm not sure why, after rereading it, I LOVE this book. The writing is stunning and there is such a depth of emotion. Beautiful imagery, heartbreaking story, great novel.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The prose is beautiful and flowing. The story is heartbreaking, and told in a way that keeps the reader engaged. A truly wonderful read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I liked the author's use of words, she was very creative. The story was dark and sad as Booker Prize books often are. The setting is 1969 in the southernmost tip of India. Two-egg twins Rahel and Esthappen are two innocent children that will be severely affected by the adults in their lives. "Things can change in a day" is one of the many statements made by the author that creates foreboding as the reader nears the end.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    By the end of the book, I enjoyed the story. However, I did not enjoy the writing style. The sentence fragments and fragmented story were just a bit too much. In some scenes, there was TOO much detail and information and other scenes seemed to lack anything other than the basic information, when I, as a reader, would have liked a little more.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    It's not badly written, but not to my taste at all.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Arundahti Roy created a stellar work of literature in one go with this novel, realizing every writer's dream. Reading its opening pages I withheld my praise, knowing these would be the most polished but could she keep it up? She could, and she excelled them. All the hallmarks extolled by modern literature are masterfully incorporated: the slow reveals through deftness with time, the playfulness of language, the wonders of description and astute metaphor, the depth of characters, the slow unravelling of captivating mystery, and the fascinating insights into human nature. The novel takes place in India and has all the foreign-to-me hallmarks of that culture, but it could have happened next door to me for the humanity it captures.It's a rare book these days that doesn't tire me at any point, but the inventiveness just kept drawing me on and on. The novel is half told in a straightforward manner, half imbued with Rahel's imaginings and thought process that places a sort of obscuring overlay across the scenes. Seeing the full picture unveils a kind of red herring that bothers me, but I can also appreciate what purpose it served in demonstrating my own biases and assumptions. If I were a re-reader, this novel would be a prime candidate.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A sad story beautifully written.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Brutal, beautiful, unforgiving. Sad, but in a way that seemed inevitable, not gratuitous.

    Despite liking this book a lot, I would be cautious about recommending it to others. You need a tolerance for a certain kind of writing--it's not poetry, but the language occupies a similar place in some ways, with its repetition, creativity, and occasional preciousness. Sometimes it lays it on a little thick.

    I was impressed with how the author handled the non-linear timeline. Very well structured.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Definitely a classic. For some reason I am drawn to anything about India. This one disturbed me to the core. I can't even examine why.... Or the story would be spoiled for you!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A very sad story, very touching and sincere
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I would like to start by saying that I thought the writing was beautiful and for that it deserved to win the Man Booker prize. I wasn't sure whether to give it 3 or 4 stars but gave 4 in the end because the prose was so lovely. That said, it is a very sad, tragic tale, written in retrospect, so that the storyline is revealed gradually, interspersed with the present, which in its bleakness tells its own story. It is understated and contained prose which I happen to like, but I can imagine that this would not appeal to everyone. For me, this was a book well worth reading.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is one book that is considered 'difficult' that I enjoyed a lot and had no problem understanding it at any place. In fact it was page turner for me. For whatever reason, I absolutely could not put it down. The story can be summed up as a one big tragedy befalling the characters. They are the people who are weak and thus helpless. Velutha is an 'untouchable', Ammu a feisty divorced woman with two kids, and several other characters in the book are simply on the wrong side of the society and the ends they meet is the direct result of that.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    To paraphrase Brendan Behan (on the subject of Gertrude Stein), you will not see me jump for joy at prose by Arundhati Roy. Granted, Ms Roy is a personally brave person of unquestioned righteousness, but . . . You know, boys and girls, one of the many problems with rioting is that it almost inevitably leads to trampling. In this case, the riot of imagery tramples any possibility of coherence or credibility in this particular opus.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Beautifully written but utterly depressing.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What sets Roy's wring apart from others is her creative use of language. Imagine the farting of mud as steps are taken. She was you in the story telling hat happened before and hat happens after, but it is is not till the end that she tells you what happened. Telling the story through the inexperience of twins also helps convey the story of innocent people caught in actions of which they have no control. I was glad I had visited Cochin before reading this, it gave me a better idea of the lushness of the natural beauty.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This had been on my TBR for a very long time, and I'm glad that I finally got around to reading it. The book is set in India and follows the lives of twins (a boy and a girl) through the early events that shaped them. It's a tale of childhood, innocence lost, and forbidden love. While some people may find the prose "overwritten" (as some critics had said), I thought the author's tone and style matched the setting and help to paint the imagery. The prose is sometimes filled with passages that convey both the bitterness and romance of childhood, despite the Be forewarned: there is no shortage of loss in this book (it's a tragedy), but the writing is poetic.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Amazing use of language. Political, social, erotic, cultural themes knit together in a tragic re-telling of forbidden love in India.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    A difficult book to read because of the constant shift of time. Wonderful use of language as a child (pre-literate) perceives ... e.g. A Nowl (vs "an owl). This device is also distracting. Tragedy destroys the family. But the social setting plays a part as well - would it turn out differently in a different culture?Everyone was recommending this book when our book club chose it. I didn't particular care for it, though it was a good discussion.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I loved this book in high school because it was dreamlike and amorphous/ambiguous and everything that happened had a fluid sense of morality about it (as did everyone to whom things happened) which was new in my reading experience. Obviously I wasn't particularly worldly or well-read at the time, but whatever.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    What takes place in this story is gripping; however, I found it very difficult to read. Many times I almost put it down and then the next chapter would totally capture my attention. I am so glad that I did finish it.The capitalization, sentence structure, Indian words, backward spelling, etc. just diverted my focus on the book rather than adding to it. For some readers, this might help portray images, feelings, etc. For me it was just confusing. And would someone tell me what Ammu lost when she lost her "locusts stand I"??? This phrase occurs several times and I realize that is what the twins are hearing, but I just couldn't get it. This is just typical of so many of the confusing elements.I have read several wonderful novels set in India lately (Inheritance of Loss, for example), however, I felt that what some call Roy's extraordinary narration, I found to be just gimicky and distracting.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5

    Told largely through the eyes of the child Rahel, one of a pair of non-identical twins, this is primarily a portrait of how a single person's malevolent self-interest can poison so much around her; other virulent toxins -- notably the relics of the caste system -- play their part in the novel's slowly unfolding tragedy, but it's really the bitter, aging, totally self-serving spinster Baby Kochamma whose venom drives events.

    The focus is a spell of a few days when the children Rahel and her brother Estha await the arrival of and then become friends with their half-English cousin Sophie Mol, the latter's tragic death, and the aftermath. Interwoven is the disaster of their mother Ammu's passionate relationship with a local lad, Velutha -- disastrous because Velutha is an Untouchable.

    Although the adult Rahel appears somewhat sparingly in the book, as she a couple of decades later revisits her old home, the scene of so much pain, in a way she's a conduit through which we learn the tale. This, at least, is how I read the narrative's extraordinarily fanciful language, riddled with nonce-words and chantlike repetitions: we're being presented with a tale coloured by Rahel's recollections of her childhood self. For the most part that language is gloriously evocative, with occasional sentences I found myself wanting to reread just for the pleasure of the words (there's a sort of Alfred Besterish lust for linguistic games at work here); but all too often, alas, it dives into the irritatingly self-indulgent or twee. A few examples from many:

    [:] It made him smile out loud.
    [:] . . . she listened with her eyes.
    [:] He hurried with his mind. [Roy liked this one so much she used it twice.:]
    [:] Estha put his head in his [own:] lap. [A neat trick if you can do it.:]
    [:] But she said it with her dimples . . .
    [:] His face was neither lifted towards the rain, nor bent away from it.

    As you'll have guessed, I ended up having very equivocal feelings about Roy's use of language. Was it really serving the tale, or was it just a pretentious lack of discipline? Such concerns were underscored by the unconscionable amount of time Roy takes over the telling of the earlier parts of her story: the narrative swirls around for long chapters during which there are all kinds of verbal pyrotechnics but little or no progress toward the nub of the tale. Finally, perhaps fifty or seventy pages from the end, a momentum does start to build up, so that eventually I was being carried along by an ever-swifter, ever-stronger current; the novel's climax is indeed traumatic, but I suspect quite a few readers, confronted by countless tiresomenesses in the first four-fifths of the book, won't have got that far.

    Oh, and there's a scene in the book's concluding pages that should have (and for all I know may have) been nominated for the relevant year's Bad Sex Award. I have no quibble with the scene being there -- in fact, I'd say that for the novel's sake it's structurally necessary that it be so -- but I do have qualms over its execution.

    All in all, then, I'm still very much in two minds about this novel. I do recognize its many strengths, I applaud Roy's courage in playing so roughly with the English language, I laughed in all (or at least most of) the right places, I near-wept over the events of the finale, and I 'd say the book was, because of its linguistic ambition if for no other reason, worthy of the Booker Prize it won; yet all at the same time so much about it was irritating me that I'm not sure it won't be the case that, in memory, it'll be the irritation that wins out.