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Aravind AdigaAravind Adiga
Amnesty: A Novel Hardcover – February 18, 2020
by Aravind Adiga (Author)
3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 801 ratings
A riveting, suspenseful, and exuberant novel 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.
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.
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Print length
272 pages
Language
English
Publisher
Scribner
Publication date
February 18, 2020
Dimensions
6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
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Editorial Reviews
Review
The Millions, Vulture, LitHub, and Buzzfeed'sMost Anticipated of 2020
The New York Times Most Anticipated of February 2020
"I like to read Adiga’s novels almost as much as the poet James Dickey liked to drink. He has more to say than most novelists, and about 50 more ways to say it… Adiga is a startlingly fine observer, and a complicator, in the manner of V.S. Naipaul… Reading him you get a sense of having your finger on the planet’s pulse… This novel has a simmering plot…[but] you come to this novel for other reasons, notably for its author’s authority, wit and feeling on the subject of immigrants’ lives… Keep reading."
—The New York Times
"Searing, inventive ... Amnesty is Adiga’s most accomplished novel yet, a gorgeously crafted page-turner with brains and heart, illuminating the courage of displaced peoples and the cruelties of those who conspire against them.”
—Hamilton Cain, The Minneapolis Star Tribune
“What makes Amnesty an urgent and significant book is the generosity and the humanity of its vision. The abstract issue of immigration, fodder for cheap politics, comes starkly alive in the story of this one man, his past troubles and his present conflict. Amnesty is an ample book, pertinent and necessary. It speaks to our times.”
—Juan Gabriel Vasquez, The New York Times Book Review
“Adiga shines when documenting the ways in which immigrants are marginalized by those who claim to care about them... Amnesty succeeds in wrenching attention toward systemic injustice.”
—Kristen Millares Young, The Washington Post
“A universal story with particular relevance and urgency today.”
—Parade
“A near-hallucinatory guided tour of Australia’s largest city as observed by an endearing oddball who, out of necessity, keeps to the shadows… In fresh and playful prose…Adiga places you smack in the middle of Danny’s buzzing mind… With its pleasurably off-kilter sympathies and style, Amnesty compellingly captures Danny’s tricky plight.”
—Michael Upchurch, The Seattle Times
“Adiga is one of the great observers of power and its deformities, showing in novels like his Booker Prize winning White Tiger and Last Man in Tower how within societies, the powerful lean on the less powerful, and the weak exploit the weaker all the way down. Telling the tale of Danny’s immigration along the story of one tense day, he has built a forceful, urgent thriller for our times.”
—John Freeman, Lit Hub Executive Editor
“Adiga’s novel…takes the reader inside the cautious, furtive world of an undocumented immigrant who clings to hope but lives with so much fear and paranoia. In all of its minutiae and incredible detail, these pages call attention to the real heartbreak of undocumented people who dream of a better existence – not only in Australia but in the United States and elsewhere…the substance is so good – the premise of a day’s moral tussling by an individual with so much at personal stake – and the writing is beautiful (at times lyrical)."
—Jennifer Forker, The Associated Press
“Amnesty is a story that will, with plenty of Adiga’s trademark wit, force you to reckon with your own ethical code.”
—Madison Malone Kircher, Vulture
“A work of deeply consequential fiction.”
—BookPage, starred review
“Like Valeria Luiselli in Lost Children Archive, Adiga bears witness to the disruption, pain, and hardship inherent in needing to leave one’s country and find refuge elsewhere. Highly recommended."
—Library Journal, starred review
"In this smart twist on a classic whodunit, Danny, undocumented and working as a house cleaner in Sydney after fleeing Sri Lanka, has information about an unsolved murder. He must decide whether to stay silent—or come forward and risk deportation."
—VanityFair
“A taut, thrillerlike novel... A well-crafted tale of entrapment, alert to the risk of exploitation that follows immigrants in a new country.” —Kirkus, starred review
"Engrossing...vivid...Adiga’s enthralling depiction of one immigrant’s tough situation humanizes a complex and controversial global dilemma."
—Publishers Weekly
"Scrutinizes the human condition through a haves-vs.-have-not filter with sly wit and narrative ingenuity... Adiga's smart, funny, and timely tale with a crime spin of an undocumented immigrant will catalyze readers."
—Booklist
“Adiga's facility for the cadence and vernacular of street talk and self-talk gives voice, literally, to figures that are often unheard.”
—Shelf Awareness
About the Author
Aravind Adiga was born in India in 1974 and attended Columbia and Oxford universities. He is the author of the novels Amnesty; Selection Day, now a series on Netflix; The White Tiger,which won the Man Booker Prize;and the story collection Between the Assassinations. He lives in Mumbai, India.
Product details
Publisher : Scribner; First Edition (February 18, 2020)
Language : English
Hardcover : 272 pages
ISBN-10 : 1982127244
ISBN-13 : 978-1982127244
Item Weight : 1.05 pounds
Dimensions : 6 x 0.8 x 9 inchesBest Sellers Rank: #636,651 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)#647 in City Life Fiction (Books)
#2,284 in Cultural Heritage Fiction
#30,981 in Literary Fiction (Books)Customer Reviews:
3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 801 ratings
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Aravind Adiga
Aravind Adiga was born in India in 1974 and attended Columbia and Oxford universities. A former correspondent for Time magazine, he has also been published in the Financial Times. He lives in Mumbai, India.
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Deedi Brown
4.0 out of 5 stars Haunting and fascinatingReviewed in the United States on February 25, 2020
Amnesty is an in-depth look at the world from an illegal immigrant’s perspective that leaves a ringing, lasting impression.
For you if: You don’t mind books that ask a little extra from you because they are more literary / cerebral.
FULL REVIEW:
"Nothing is simple for a man like this one. Not even being helpless. Or harmless. Life is a battle, and though unevenly so, everyone is armed."
Amnesty was a really unique book, at least for me, and so it also moved me in a unique way. Told over the course of one single day, it follows an illegal immigrant living in Sydney, Australia, named Danny.
Danny has been in Sydney for four years. He originally travelled there on a student visa and then applied for asylum, but was denied. So he stayed illegally. Now he has a girlfriend he loves and a steady stream of clients whose houses he cleans, so life is pretty good. But then one of them is murdered, and Danny thinks another one of his clients may have killed her. In fact, Danny is probably the only person who knows about the connection between them. But if he tells the police, he’ll be deported. He spends the day agonizing over the decision, which is not helped by the fact that the potential killer keeps calling him and harassing him.
I don’t know if I’ve ever read a book told in one day before. At certain times, it made me feel a little impatient for the plot to move along. But at other times, I was hit by the way the author could slow so far down and use an exacting level of detail to leave an impression. And the spiraling nature of Danny’s internal struggle hammered home the trauma he’d lived and was currently living.
This book lost me sometimes. It wavered between first person and third person and here and there and then and now, all in a way that was occasionally hard to follow. But I always found my way back. The result is a book that feels very literary and cerebral (I’m not surprised to see that Adiga previously won the Booker Prize, as nominated books tend to feel that way). So it takes a little more work, but it turned out to be worth it to me in the end.
It’s not too hard to find stories about illegal immigrants during their journey, or right after. I have read far fewer stories about their daily lives once they arrive. The way they are hunted, haunted, afraid, empowered and disempowered, surrounded by both comrades and foes. This book painted a portrait of an exhausting life that is still yet worth living. And for that, I’m grateful.
TRIGGER WARNINGS
Violence / murder
Racism and racial slurs
Islamophobia
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Fran
5.0 out of 5 stars Staying Under the Radar in a Foreign LandReviewed in the United States on February 23, 2020
It's all about rules, so says Dhananjaya "Danny" Rajaratnam, an illegal immigrant from Sri Lanka. "Many of us flee chaos to come here. Aussies are an optimistic and methodical people...Understanding the concept of the rule that cannot be broken is vital to adjusting here." "Even before he got to Australia, Danny was practicing becoming Australian...[Danny must] eliminate the tics that Tamils bring to their English."
Securing a student visa for an overpriced "ripoff" of a university in Australia, Danny made the honest mistake of overstaying his visa after dropping out of school. Australia had"zero tolerance" for illegals. Now he lived in a storeroom above Tommo's Sunburst Grocery in Glebe. Danny's room was furnished with items discarded by others. He was allowed to use a small electric heater for up to forty minutes a night. A portion of his daily earnings as a cleaner must be paid to "middleman" Tommo. Armed with his "astronaut" backpack containing a vacuum, and a plastic bag of cleaning supplies, he traveled to his first job of the day.
Danny was rattled. While cleaning an apartment in Erskineville, three policemen ran up the stairs to the floor above. What a relief! They were not looking for Danny! Seeing increased police presence, he noticed that the window at house #5 across the street was open and Radha Thomas's husband, Mark was leaning out, his face red from crying. Mark had been informed that the body of his wife, Radha had been found floating in a creek, weighted down by a rock filled leather jacket. Danny strongly suspected he knew who committed the murder. "Does a person without rights still have responsibilities?...Should he come forward with knowledge of the crime and risk deportation?...Should he say nothing and let justice go undone?"
"Amnesty" by Aravind Adiga takes place over the course of one day. Danny struggles over whether to keep a low profile or expose a suspect. "He is a "brown man in a white man's city...Easiest thing in the world becoming invisible to white people who don't see you any way; but the hardest thing is becoming invisible to brown people who will see you no matter what." This reader was a little disappointed that the psychological tension wavered taking too long to play out. Author Adiga, however, created a timely, realistic tome concerning the difficulties faced by nameless people attempting to stay under the radar in a foreign country. The goal: survival.
Thank you Scribner and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "Amnesty".
3 people found this helpful
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Glauce Augusto Cassimiro
5.0 out of 5 stars Preço Justo e Ótimo ProdutoReviewed in Brazil on January 30, 2021
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Livro novo com capa simples. Ótimo custo benefício
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Luke Dennison
4.0 out of 5 stars Great concept, occasionally clumsy writing.Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 3, 2022
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I was between 3 and 4 stars but have been generous and rounded up to 4 stars.
The concept is great here, covering the world of illegal immigration in one day, based around a murder of someone the main character used to know. This concept gives time for the reality of the situation to slowly come to the fore, the feelings of our protagonist and his situation and how he thinks other see him and his kind.
The murder story takes second fiddle and is used to supplement the main topic, so if you are expecting a murder mystery leave this alone.
I liked the main character, I liked the concept and I liked the story.
What I liked a lot less was the writing, Adiga writes well for the most part but then occasionally, he throws in really descriptive and confusing paragraphs and the writing jars so you have to read the paragraph again (often without luck).
Overall, I liked this though but it's not on the same level as white tiger. 7/10
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Amazon Customer
2.0 out of 5 stars I couldn’t get to the endReviewed in Italy on January 5, 2022
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I am a great fan of Adiga but this time I was disappointed. The only part that I found captivating is the story of Danny’s relationship/friendship with his employers and the pursuit of the killer of the landlady he worked for (who follows whom is not clear). apart from this, the story is too long and the digressions on Danny’s whereabouts before he lands in Australia are a side-story with a lot of moral in it and not very clear altogether. My attention and patience were fading the more I read on and eventually I dropped the book.
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ashutosh singh
4.0 out of 5 stars One time readReviewed in India on July 21, 2020
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Nice read but white tiger was better,,, the book becomes predictable somehow not much of a mystery nor able to understand a clear motive of the antagonist..
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Gagandeep Singh
4.0 out of 5 stars Great relatable experiences being an Australian immigrant myself.Reviewed in Australia on August 23, 2021
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Being a beginner reader the book was pretty complex at times. But being an immigrant myself I found some bits to be relatable and nostalgic. The story was amazing and I wanted to find out what’s next page after page. Quick read. Great addition to the bookshelf.
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