The God of Small Things: A Novel

BOOKER PRIZE WINNER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERAn affluent Indian family is forever changed by one fateful day in 1969, from the author of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness and Mother Mary Comes to Me

“[The God of Small Things] offers such magic, mystery, and sadness that, literally, this reader turned the last page and decided to reread it. Immediately. It’s that haunting.”—USA Today

Compared favorably to the works of Faulkner and Dickens, Arundhati Roy’s modern classic is equal parts powerful family saga, forbidden love story, and piercing political drama. The seven-year-old twins Estha and Rahel see their world shaken irrevocably by the arrival of their beautiful young cousin, Sophie. It is an event that will lead to an illicit liaison and tragedies accidental and intentional, exposing “big things [that] lurk unsaid” in a country drifting dangerously toward unrest.

Lush, lyrical, and unnerving, The God of Small Things is an award-winning landmark that started for its author an esteemed career of fiction and political commentary that continues unabated.

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Published Dec 16, 2008

333 pages

Average rating: 7.48

247 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

The USA’s Empire Past & present
Jan 11, 2026
Mo's Pick
Kitten with a whip
Jan 22, 2026
9/10 stars
Favourite book of all time. Loved how Arundhati writes.
Elydah
Dec 29, 2025
Didnt finish - too sad
Gwendola
Nov 30, 2025
4/10 stars
Very strange
Adityaraj Singh Faujdar
Jul 30, 2025
8/10 stars
One of my all time favorites. The first time I read it, it took a lot of time for me to be my former self again. It has remained with me and I think will remain with me for whole my life. Made me feel a thousand emotions all at once. Like I wanted to say something, something so important, yet I couldn't find the right words for it. This is one of the earliest books which made me love reading.

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