Neel Mukherjee – författare

Shortlisted for the Man Booker PrizeShortlisted for the Costa Novel AwardWinner of the Encore AwardShortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian LiteratureLonglisted for the IMPAC PrizeCalcutta, 1967. Unnoticed by his family, Supratik has become dangerously involved in extremist political activism. Compelled by an idealistic desire to change his life and the world around him, all he leaves behind before disappearing is a note.At home, his family slowly begins to unravel. Poisonous rivalries grow, the once-thriving family business implodes and destructive secrets are unearthed. And all around them the sands are shifting as society fractures, for this is a moment of turbulence, of inevitable and unstoppable change.‘Deeply moving’ Amitav Ghosh ‘Terrifies and delights’ A S Byatt, Guardian ‘Unforgettable’ Daily Telegraph

A New York Times Notable Book of 2018 What happens when one attempts to exchange the life one is given for something better? Can we transform the possibilities we are born into?

Longlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian LiteratureWhat happens when we attempt to exchange the life we are given for something better? Five people, in very different circumstances, from a domestic cook in Mumbai, to a vagrant and his dancing bear, and a girl who escapes terror in her home village for a new life in the city, find out the meanings of dislocation, and the desire for more. Set in contemporary India and moving between the reality of this world and the shadow of another, this novel delivers a devastating and haunting exploration of the unquenchable human urge to strive for a different life.

'A brilliant, bleak moral maze of a novel' Guardian'Dazzling... by turns comic, lyrical and heartbreaking' Monica Ali'Profound and beautiful' Paul Murray, author of The Bee Sting'A vital, haunting, devastating read' Sarah WatersA publisher, who is at war with his industry and himself, embarks on a radical experiment in his own life and the lives of those connected to him; an academic exchanges one story for another after an accident brings a stranger into her life; and a family in rural India have their lives destroyed by a gift. These three ingeniously linked but distinct narratives, each of which has devastating unintended consequences, form a breathtaking exploration of freedom, responsibility, and ethics. What happens when market values replace other notions of value and meaning? How do the choices we make affect our work, our relationships, and our place in the world? Neel Mukherjee's new novel exposes the myths of individual choice, and confronts our fundamental assumptions about economics, race, appropriation, and the tangled ethics of contemporary life.Choice is a scathing, compassionate quarrel with the world, a masterful inquiry into how we should live our lives, and how we should tell them.'A magnificent achievement' Namwali Serpell'A superb writer... his greatest work yet' Michelle de Kretser

'A brilliant, bleak moral maze of a novel' Guardian'Dazzling... by turns comic, lyrical and heartbreaking' Monica Ali'Profound and beautiful' Paul Murray, author of The Bee Sting'A vital, haunting, devastating read' Sarah WatersA publisher, who is at war with his industry and himself, embarks on a radical experiment in his own life and the lives of those connected to him; an academic exchanges one story for another after an accident brings a stranger into her life; and a family in rural India have their lives destroyed by a gift. These three ingeniously linked but distinct narratives, each of which has devastating unintended consequences, form a breathtaking exploration of freedom, responsibility, and ethics. What happens when market values replace other notions of value and meaning? How do the choices we make affect our work, our relationships, and our place in the world? Neel Mukherjee's new novel exposes the myths of individual choice, and confronts our fundamental assumptions about economics, race, appropriation, and the tangled ethics of contemporary life.Choice is a scathing, compassionate quarrel with the world, a masterful inquiry into how we should live our lives, and how we should tell them.'A magnificent achievement' Namwali Serpell'A superb writer... his greatest work yet' Michelle de Kretser

'A brilliant, bleak moral maze of a novel' Guardian'Dazzling... by turns comic, lyrical and heartbreaking' Monica Ali'Profound and beautiful' Paul Murray, author of The Bee Sting'A vital, haunting, devastating read' Sarah WatersA publisher, who is at war with his industry and himself, embarks on a radical experiment in his own life and the lives of those connected to him; an academic exchanges one story for another after an accident brings a stranger into her life; and a family in rural India have their lives destroyed by a gift. These three ingeniously linked but distinct narratives, each of which has devastating unintended consequences, form a breathtaking exploration of freedom, responsibility, and ethics. What happens when market values replace other notions of value and meaning? How do the choices we make affect our work, our relationships, and our place in the world? Neel Mukherjee's new novel exposes the myths of individual choice, and confronts our fundamental assumptions about economics, race, appropriation, and the tangled ethics of contemporary life.Choice is a scathing, compassionate quarrel with the world, a masterful inquiry into how we should live our lives, and how we should tell them.'A magnificent achievement' Namwali Serpell'A superb writer... his greatest work yet' Michelle de Kretser