Contents
Arundhati Roy
Writing the Booker-winning The God of Small Things and outspoken political essays.
Indian literature · The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
- Born
- 24 November 1961
- Birthplace
- Shillong, India
More people
Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy is an Indian novelist and essayist. Her fiction explores how intimate lives are shaped by caste, politics and social rules, while her nonfiction addresses state power, inequality and environmental conflict.
Early life
Growing up in Kerala
Born in Shillong, she grew up largely in Kerala, where her mother Mary Roy founded a school.
Architecture studies
She studied architecture in Delhi before working in film and writing.
Career
- 1980s
Screen work
She acted and wrote for film and television, including the screenplay for In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones.
- 1997
First novel
The God of Small Things won the Booker Prize.
- Late 1990s onward
Political essays
She wrote extensively on nuclear weapons, dams, war and inequality.
- 2017
Second novel
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness returned her to long fiction after two decades.
Selected work
The God of Small Things
A family tragedy in Kerala unfolds across shifting memories and social boundaries.
The Cost of Living
Essays examine large dams and India’s nuclear tests.
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
Interwoven lives stretch from Old Delhi to Kashmir.
Beyond work
Public campaigns
She has supported campaigns against displacement caused by major dam projects.
Writing and dissent
Her political positions have brought both support and intense criticism, alongside the reception of her fiction.
Sources & photo credit
Biography ↗Life and work ↗Photo: Augustus Binu / facebook. CC BY-SA 3.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
