The Ministry of Utmost Happiness takes us on an intimate journey of many years across the Indian subcontinent—from the cramped neighborhoods of Old Delhi and the roads of the new city to the mountains and valleys of Kashmir and beyond, where war is peace and peace is war. It is an aching love story and a decisive remonstration, a story told in a whisper, in a shout, through unsentimental tears and sometimes with a bitter laugh. Each of its characters is indelibly, tenderly rendered. Its heroes are people who have been broken by the world they live in and then rescued, patched together by acts of love—and by hope. The tale begins with Anjum—who used to be Aftab—unrolling a threadbare Persian carpet in a city graveyard she calls home. We encounter the odd, unforgettable Tilo and the men who loved her—including Musa, sweetheart and ex-sweetheart, lover and ex-lover; their fates are as entwined as their arms used to be and always will be. We meet Tilo’s landlord, a former suitor, now an intelligence officer posted to Kabul. And then we meet the two Miss Jebeens: the first a child born in Srinagar and buried in its overcrowded Martyrs’ Graveyard; the second found at midnight, abandoned on a concrete sidewalk in the heart of New Delhi. As this ravishing, deeply humane novel braids these lives together, it reinvents what a novel can do and can be. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness demonstrates on every page the miracle of Arundhati Roy’s storytelling gifts.


本書帶領我們踏上長達數年、橫跨印度半島的旅程——從擁擠的舊德里社區和新城市的道路、喀什米爾的山脈與山谷及更遠之處，在那裏，戰爭即是和平，和平即是戰爭。這是一個令人心碎的愛情故事、也是一個關鍵性的控訴。這個故事有時輕聲呢喃、有時又怒吼咆哮，伴隨著麻木的眼淚和時不時的苦笑。作者對每個角色的刻畫是如此柔情、如此深刻，書裡的英雄歷經摧殘，卻又因為愛與希望而獲得救贖。這個故事起於阿妮恩，以前她叫阿夫塔卜，以城市的墓園為家，在那攤開一條破舊的波斯地毯就是她的安頓之處。書中還有奇特又令人難忘的提羅，她有三位愛慕者，包含慕沙還有分分合合的情人，他們的命運一如既往地糾葛不分。提羅的房東也曾追求過提羅，現在是喀布爾的情報局人員。書中出現兩個嬰兒，第一個出生於斯利那加，最後安葬在擁擠的烈士墓園裡；第二個則在半夜被人發現，他被遺棄在新德里市中心人行道旁。在這個美麗又充滿人性的故事裡，所有人的生命都交織在一起，本書顛覆一本小說能達到的境界，每一頁都展現阿蘭達蒂．洛伊如何用自己說故事的天賦帶來奇蹟。