image of person or book cover 2519165525587506592.jpg
Cover image courtesy of publisher.
y separately published work icon Amnesty novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2020... 2020 Amnesty
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'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.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Notes

  • Dedication : For Mark Greif to thank him for twenty-two years of friendship
  • Epigraph : "Within the four seas all men are brothers" - On an arch in Chinatown, Sydney
  • A brief review of this work appeared in The New York Times on 15 January 2021 and 23 February 2020

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Scribner ,
      2020 .
      image of person or book cover 2519165525587506592.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 272p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 18 February 2020.
      ISBN: 9781982127244 (hbk), 9781982127312 (ebook)
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Picador ,
      2020 .
      image of person or book cover 3324690705216761768.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 352p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 20 February 2020.
      ISBN: 9781509879038 (hbk), 9781509879069 (ebook)
    • c
      India,
      c
      South Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
      :
      Pan Macmillan India ,
      2020 .
      image of person or book cover 236226415258256569.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 272p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 20 February 2020.
      ISBN: 9789389109436, 9389109434
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Scribner ,
      2021 .
      image of person or book cover 7879392548613535382.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 256p.p.
      ISBN: 9781982127305 (pbk), 1982127309, 9781982127312 (ebk)
    • Waterville, Maine,
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Thorndike Press ,
      2021 .
      image of person or book cover 4288298045127960998.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 373p.p.
      ISBN: 9781432879785, 1432879782
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Picador ,
      2021 .
      image of person or book cover 3824871980920513032.png
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 272p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 21 January 2021.
      ISBN: 9781509879052 (pbk)
Alternative title: Amnestie Roman
Language: German
    • Munich,
      c
      Germany,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      C. H. Beck ,
      2020 .
      image of person or book cover 1112989832084958930.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 286p.p.
      ISBN: 9783406755514, 3406755518

Other Formats

  • Sound recording.
  • Large print.

Works about this Work

Hospitality and Amnesty : Aravind Adiga’s Narrative of Legal Liminality Ana Cristina Mendes , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: Interventions : International Journal of Postcolonial Studies , vol. 25 no. 4 2023; (p. 468-484)

'Amnesty continues several of the social justice themes of precarity and subalternity (at times, a violent subaltern agency) of Aravind Adiga’s fiction, and its literary narrative centres again on criminal acts and the moral dilemma the protagonist faces over whether to report a murder and expose his illegality to do “the right thing.” Offering a postcolonial reading of Amnesty supported by concepts from migration, citizenship, and human rights studies, this essay discusses the novel’s representation of the inhospitable conditions experienced by migrants victimized by the precarity of their status, whether discursively categorized as illegal, irregular, undocumented, unauthorized, or unlawful; by the consequent exploitations and abuse without recourse to justice; and by the suspension of their human rights. The theme of illegality is approached in Adiga’s narrative from a more radical perspective of liminality – the state of “legal liminality” in which irregular migrants find themselves when longing to belong in the host country, or at least be legalized, while gripped and besieged by myriad daily fears and anxieties that their legal status will be discovered, compounded by a resolute refusal to leave the host country. Adiga forces this theoretical question of legal liminality to an extreme by presenting a protagonist who, as an irregular migrant, has committed the political crime of illegally overstaying in the host country. The central question of amnesty is raised when the protagonist faces the dilemma of stepping up to civic responsibilities without having been conceded participatory rights.'(Publication abstract)

A Bird’s-Eye View Over Sydney: Animal Imagery in Amnesty by Aravind Adiga Costanza Mondo , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses , no. 38 2023; (p. 43-57)

'The creative and meaningful use of animal imagery plays an important role in Aravind Adiga’s novels. In his previous works, such as the 2008 Booker-prize-winning The White Tiger and Last Man in Tower (published in 2011), animal references frequently feature in the narration, thus conveying multi-layered meanings. However, animal references become particularly noticeable in Amnesty, his latest novel published in 2020. The aim of this paper is to investigate the use of animal imagery in Amnesty and unravel some of its possible meanings. Starting from interpretations of animal metaphors related to humans, the paper will then put under scrutiny other interpretations of animal references which progressively enlarge their reach, thereby involving not only the city of Sydney, but the whole novel. By making reference to specific passages, I will explore the meanings of the animal imagery with respect to the illegal immigrants, their condition and to isolation, which acquires particular relevance, since the narrator is a Sri Lankan illegal immigrant who initially reached Australia thanks to a student visa. Furthermore, other interpretations of the animal references could revolve around the city of Sydney, its curious representation as a jungle and its representational use of animal imagery in the coat of arms and official contexts. Finally, light will be shed on the interesting role played by animals in pivotal scenes and their unexpected powerful revelations, which allow readers to better understand some episodes in the novel and interpret them from a different, enlightening perspective.' (Publication abstract)

The Saddest of Stories, Beautifully Told : Your Guide to the Miles Franklin 2021 Shortlist Jen Webb , 2021 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 15 July 2021; The Guardian Australia , 15 July 2021;
Slouching Toward Invisibility Juan Gabriel Vásquez , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: The New York Times , 15 March 2020; (p. 12)

— Review of Amnesty Aravind Adiga , 2020 novel
Outside the Circle Geordie Williamson , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 14 March 2020; (p. 21)

— Review of Amnesty Aravind Adiga , 2020 novel
Aravind Adiga : Amnesty Elena Gomez , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 21-27 March 2020;

— Review of Amnesty Aravind Adiga , 2020 novel

'Dhananjaya Rajaratnam has lived in Sydney for four years. He goes by the name Danny, has blond-tipped hair and has long abandoned the course that once qualified him for a student visa. Now he cleans houses for inner-city professionals and lives in the storeroom of a convenience store. Danny is invisible to most Australians around him, but lives in constant fear of being deported. This fear is mixed with Danny’s quirky reflections on English idioms and the physical traits and mannerisms of the locals he wants to blend in with.' (Introduction)

Amnesty by Aravind Adiga Alison Broinowski , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 420 2020;

— Review of Amnesty Aravind Adiga , 2020 novel

'Much political mileage has been made in Australia from the turning back of ‘boat people’. Travel by boat is the cheapest means of getting to this island continent, and the most dangerous. Boat travellers are the poorest and the most likely to be caught and deported or sent to an offshore camp. But their number is less than half of those who arrive by air as tourists and apply for refugee protection: some 100,000 have done so during the seven years of this Coalition government.' (Introduction)

House Rules Beejay Silcox , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: The Times Literary Supplement , 6 March 2020; (p. 9)

— Review of Amnesty Aravind Adiga , 2020 novel
'SYDNEY IS CHOKING in Aravind Adiga's Amnesty, the sky "darkened by a film of windborne woodsmoke" that has coiled its way down from a bushfire in the Blue Mountains. The smoke is a grey wraith, haunting the city, triggering fire alarms in shops and houses as it sweeps across the harbour. It is a quiet background detail in Adiga's fourth novel. But as Australia burns, it feels consequential: not prescience so much as a kind of monstrous inevitability. With Amnesty, Adiga captures the breathless grief of stepping into a future that has already been written. It is equal parts elegy and indictment.' (Introduction)
Outside the Circle Geordie Williamson , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 14 March 2020; (p. 21)

— Review of Amnesty Aravind Adiga , 2020 novel
Slouching Toward Invisibility Juan Gabriel Vásquez , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: The New York Times , 15 March 2020; (p. 12)

— Review of Amnesty Aravind Adiga , 2020 novel
He’s Short and Brown Among the Tall and White Dwight Garner , 2020 single work column
— Appears in: The New York Times , 11 February 2020; (p. 6)

'Danny Rajaratnam, the protagonist of the bracing new novel by Aravind Adiga, “Amnesty,” has a vegan girlfriend. She looks at him and says things like: “You know what milk is? A kind of pus. Think about that, you’re guzzling pus.”' (Introduction)

The Saddest of Stories, Beautifully Told : Your Guide to the Miles Franklin 2021 Shortlist Jen Webb , 2021 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 15 July 2021; The Guardian Australia , 15 July 2021;
A Bird’s-Eye View Over Sydney: Animal Imagery in Amnesty by Aravind Adiga Costanza Mondo , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses , no. 38 2023; (p. 43-57)

'The creative and meaningful use of animal imagery plays an important role in Aravind Adiga’s novels. In his previous works, such as the 2008 Booker-prize-winning The White Tiger and Last Man in Tower (published in 2011), animal references frequently feature in the narration, thus conveying multi-layered meanings. However, animal references become particularly noticeable in Amnesty, his latest novel published in 2020. The aim of this paper is to investigate the use of animal imagery in Amnesty and unravel some of its possible meanings. Starting from interpretations of animal metaphors related to humans, the paper will then put under scrutiny other interpretations of animal references which progressively enlarge their reach, thereby involving not only the city of Sydney, but the whole novel. By making reference to specific passages, I will explore the meanings of the animal imagery with respect to the illegal immigrants, their condition and to isolation, which acquires particular relevance, since the narrator is a Sri Lankan illegal immigrant who initially reached Australia thanks to a student visa. Furthermore, other interpretations of the animal references could revolve around the city of Sydney, its curious representation as a jungle and its representational use of animal imagery in the coat of arms and official contexts. Finally, light will be shed on the interesting role played by animals in pivotal scenes and their unexpected powerful revelations, which allow readers to better understand some episodes in the novel and interpret them from a different, enlightening perspective.' (Publication abstract)

Hospitality and Amnesty : Aravind Adiga’s Narrative of Legal Liminality Ana Cristina Mendes , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: Interventions : International Journal of Postcolonial Studies , vol. 25 no. 4 2023; (p. 468-484)

'Amnesty continues several of the social justice themes of precarity and subalternity (at times, a violent subaltern agency) of Aravind Adiga’s fiction, and its literary narrative centres again on criminal acts and the moral dilemma the protagonist faces over whether to report a murder and expose his illegality to do “the right thing.” Offering a postcolonial reading of Amnesty supported by concepts from migration, citizenship, and human rights studies, this essay discusses the novel’s representation of the inhospitable conditions experienced by migrants victimized by the precarity of their status, whether discursively categorized as illegal, irregular, undocumented, unauthorized, or unlawful; by the consequent exploitations and abuse without recourse to justice; and by the suspension of their human rights. The theme of illegality is approached in Adiga’s narrative from a more radical perspective of liminality – the state of “legal liminality” in which irregular migrants find themselves when longing to belong in the host country, or at least be legalized, while gripped and besieged by myriad daily fears and anxieties that their legal status will be discovered, compounded by a resolute refusal to leave the host country. Adiga forces this theoretical question of legal liminality to an extreme by presenting a protagonist who, as an irregular migrant, has committed the political crime of illegally overstaying in the host country. The central question of amnesty is raised when the protagonist faces the dilemma of stepping up to civic responsibilities without having been conceded participatory rights.'(Publication abstract)

Last amended 17 Sep 2024 10:41:05
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