Critics' Opinion:
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Published Feb 2020
272 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
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.
"A well-crafted tale of entrapment, alert to the risk of exploitation that follows immigrants in a new country." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"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
"Engrossing...Adiga's enthralling depiction of one immigrant's tough situation humanizes a complex and controversial global dilemma." - Publishers Weekly
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Aravind Adiga is the author of The White Tiger, which was awarded the 2008 Man Booker Prize, Last Man in Tower, and a collection of stories, Between the Assassinations. He was born in India and attended Columbia and Oxford universities. He is a former correspondent for Time magazine whose work has also appeared in the New Yorker, Granta, the Sunday Times (London), and the Financial Times, among other publications. He lives in India.
Author Interview
Link to Aravind Adiga's Website
Name Pronunciation
Aravind Adiga: arh-vindh adi-ja
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