What wonderful news!
"Ten years after winning the Booker Prize for her first novel, and a decade as one of India's leading social and environmental activists, Arundhati Roy is planning a return to fiction.
"Roy won the 1997 Booker Prize for her first novel "The God of Small Things" but has since confined herself to non-fiction, championing campaigns at home against large dams and international issues ranging from globalisation to the Iraq war."
I have long been impressed with Roy. I love her novel and her essays (especially in War Talk and An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire), her speeches that are sometimes seen on BookTV and Democracy Now!, and I'm particularly intrigued by how she's shaped her writing life. I mean, her first novel wins one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world. She pretty much singlehandedly incites a rage for Indian literature in Europe and North America, a rage that has now lasted a decade. And rather than start churning more novels, Roy uses her newfound stature to amplify her activism.
"'In those ten years, I, along with many other people, have been part of really unmasking this process of corporate globalisation,' she said..."
Today, Roy says that she feels frustrated about the effectiveness of nonviolent movements...she's sadly had a lot of disappointments, huge ones, regarding her fights against the destructive dams being built in India in particular. And I'm troubled to hear these words of hers:
"'I am not able to stand up and say 'everybody must take up arms', because I am not willing to take up arms myself. And I am aware of the terrible toll such a decision takes... But nor am I willing to condemn those that are looking at other ways of being effective.'"
But I nonetheless remain attentive to her discoveries and explorations. She's a smart, talented, good-hearted woman, and I'm excited to see what her new novel brings.
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