Arundhati Roy

1961–

Indian novelist and essayist whose work addresses inequality, state power and the lives of people at the margins of Indian society. Born in Shillong and raised in Kerala, she studied architecture at the School of Planning and Architecture in Delhi and wrote screenplays before turning to fiction. Her debut, The God of Small Things (1997), set in Kerala, won the Booker Prize. She then wrote mainly political essays, on subjects including dams, nuclear weapons and Kashmir. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, her second novel, moving between Delhi and Kashmir, was longlisted for the 2017 Man Booker Prize.

Timeline of Arundhati Roy’s life

Works

Prizes