The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience – classics which will endure for generations to come.

He folded his fear into a perfect rose. He held it out in the palm of his hand. She took it from him and put it in her hair

Estha and Rahel, seven-year-old twins, are growing up amidst vats of banana jam, mountains of peppercorns and scenes of political turbulence in Kerala. But when their beautiful young cousin Sophie arrives, their world is irrevocably shaken. An illicit liaison and tragedies both accidental and intentional expose things that lurk unsaid, in a country drifting dangerously towards unrest.

Winner of the Booker Prize, The God of Small Things is lush, lyrical and unnerving: a literary sensation and a modern classic.

‘A voice of breathtaking beauty… a masterpiece’ Observer

‘Richly deserving the rapturous praise it has received on both sides of the Atlantic…The God of Small Things achieves a genuine tragic resonanceIt is, indeed, a masterpiece’ Observer

‘Roy is truly gifted, not just in her ability to make words playful and meaning mischievous, but to use this to create a language texture that bowls you along, gathering momentum like the narrative itself…Witty and vivid, full of rich, memorable images…a verbal stream of steady beauty’ Ali Smith

‘It is rare to find a book that so effectively cuts through the clothes of nationality, caste and religion to reveal the bare bones of humanity. A sensational novel’ Daily Telegraph

‘A quite astonishing novel by any standards – broad in its historical sweep, emotionally profound and marvellously acute and delicate’ Economist

‘Quite brilliant…One can only strongly recommend this extremely funny and enchanting and pretty much genius piece of debut fiction’ Spectator

Arundhati Roy is an award-winning filmmaker and a trained architect. In 1997 she won the Booker Prize for ‘The God of Small Things’. She lives in New Delhi.