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Amnesty
Danny – Dhananjaya Rajaratnam – is an illegal immigrant in Sydney, denied refugee status after he has fled from his native 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 Australian life.
But then one morning, Danny learns a female client of his has been murdered. When Danny recognizes a jacket left at the murder scene, he believes it belongs to another of his clients — a doctor with whom he 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 a single 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.
274 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 18, 2020
533 people are currently reading
10383 people want to read
About the author
Aravind Adiga
23 books2,511 followersAravind Adiga was born in 1974 in Madras (now called Chennai), and grew up in Mangalore in the south of India. He was educated at Columbia University in New York and Magdalen College, Oxford. His articles have appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, the Sunday Times, the Financial Times, and the Times of India. His debut novel, The White Tiger, won the Man Booker Prize for fiction in 2008. Its release was followed by a collection of short stories in the book titled Between the Assassinations. His second novel, Last Man in the Tower, was published in 2011. His newest novel, Selection Day, was published in 2016.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 698 reviews
October 9, 2023
[Edited 10/9/23]
A good story, a psychological thriller, that gets us inside the skin of a brown-skinned young man who is an illegal immigrant from Sri Lanka living in Australia. I know I should call him ‘undocumented,' but Danny (that’s the name he goes by) makes a point of emphasizing the ‘illegal’ even joking at times about ‘ill legals.’
I’ll give you the background to the story but I’ll avoid any spoilers in the plot when I get to that, although I should say CONTAINS SPOILERS.
Danny came legally to Australia on a student visa but dropped out of the scam college. Now he works as a housecleaner, traveling on the Sydney subway with his Ghostbuster vacuum strapped to his back. He’s on the run now as an illegal in a country that he portrays as having Trumpesque laws requiring citizens to report illegals and teams of immigration officials tracking them down and checking IDs. He’s consumed by worry at the moment about how he’s going to get a new cell phone without a tax ID number.
Danny sleeps on the floor of an attic storage room over a grocery store run by a legal Greek immigrant. He stocks shelves occasionally but mostly he cleans apartments. He has to give his landlord a cut of all his earnings, under threat that his landlord will turn him in.
Danny has a very loving (legal) Vietnamese young woman friend. He told her just a few lies – he’s legal, he’s vegan like her, he doesn’t smoke - but so far it’s working out. (On the scale of men lying to women, we'll give Danny a C+.)
Danny is used to being a minority person. In Sri Lanka he was of the Tamil Hindu minority in a mainly Sinhalese Buddhist country torn by ethnic violence. His reference group in Australia is other brown-skinned Asians. He tells us that when he is in the subway surrounded by brown-skinned people, he can tell who is Sri Lankan, who is Indian, who is Nepali, who is Pakistani, who is Bangladeshi. He also tells us he can tell who is illegal and who is not – by the way they walk, by the way they stand, by where they stand, by the way they look around.
He tells us about what he calls ‘eyeshock.’ “There is a buzz, a reflexive retinal buzz, whenever a man or woman born in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, or Bangladesh sees another from his or her part of the world in Sydney - a tribal pinprick, an instinct always reciprocal, like the instantaneous recognition of homosexuals in a repressive society.”
Here's the setup to the story. Two of the people Danny cleans apartments for, a man and a woman, are well-off legal Indian immigrants who are having an affair. The woman is married but her husband is clueless. The couple spends their time going to bars and playing slot machines. They like Danny and they often take him with them to bars, paying him for his time. He is their audience. They don’t call him Danny, they call him ‘Cleaner.’ “Come on, have a drink Cleaner!" (Danny doesn’t drink.) “Tell us a joke, Cleaner!”
Now the plot. The Indian woman has been found murdered.
But how can Danny go to the police without turning himself in as an illegal immigrant?
Pretty much all of the action takes place over a couple of days through cat-and-mouse phone calls between the Indian man and Danny. The Indian man tries to track Danny down and get him to ‘come clean his apartment one last time.’ To be honest, these 20 or so phone calls get a bit repetitive. Could we have got by with a dozen? Maybe the Indian man will simply try to bribe Danny - he only needs to keep Danny quiet for a day until he flies out of the country.
That’s Danny’s dilemma. Will he have the moral fortitude to do the right thing?
There’s more to the story too, told in flashbacks about Danny’s life before Australia and his relations with his girlfriend. But the beauty of this book is in the author’s ability to make the reader feel what it’s like to be inside the brown skin of a man on the run in a white-dominated society.
I liked the story too for having a lot of local color of Sydney, especially of its multi-ethnic downtown Glebe neighborhood. After all that is said, I also have to point out that I am in the minority in giving this book a ‘4.’ It’s relatively low-rated on GR – only a 3.3.
Aravind Adiga was born (1974) in Madras (now Chennai), India. His family emigrated to Australia (legally? lol) where he attended school, followed by college in the US and the UK. He has written five novels and is best known for The White Tiger which won the 2008 Booker Prize and was made into a Netflix movie.
Top photo of the Glebe district by Vaida Savickaite on domain.com.au
The author from npr.org
A good story, a psychological thriller, that gets us inside the skin of a brown-skinned young man who is an illegal immigrant from Sri Lanka living in Australia. I know I should call him ‘undocumented,' but Danny (that’s the name he goes by) makes a point of emphasizing the ‘illegal’ even joking at times about ‘ill legals.’
I’ll give you the background to the story but I’ll avoid any spoilers in the plot when I get to that, although I should say CONTAINS SPOILERS.
Danny came legally to Australia on a student visa but dropped out of the scam college. Now he works as a housecleaner, traveling on the Sydney subway with his Ghostbuster vacuum strapped to his back. He’s on the run now as an illegal in a country that he portrays as having Trumpesque laws requiring citizens to report illegals and teams of immigration officials tracking them down and checking IDs. He’s consumed by worry at the moment about how he’s going to get a new cell phone without a tax ID number.
Danny sleeps on the floor of an attic storage room over a grocery store run by a legal Greek immigrant. He stocks shelves occasionally but mostly he cleans apartments. He has to give his landlord a cut of all his earnings, under threat that his landlord will turn him in.
Danny has a very loving (legal) Vietnamese young woman friend. He told her just a few lies – he’s legal, he’s vegan like her, he doesn’t smoke - but so far it’s working out. (On the scale of men lying to women, we'll give Danny a C+.)
Danny is used to being a minority person. In Sri Lanka he was of the Tamil Hindu minority in a mainly Sinhalese Buddhist country torn by ethnic violence. His reference group in Australia is other brown-skinned Asians. He tells us that when he is in the subway surrounded by brown-skinned people, he can tell who is Sri Lankan, who is Indian, who is Nepali, who is Pakistani, who is Bangladeshi. He also tells us he can tell who is illegal and who is not – by the way they walk, by the way they stand, by where they stand, by the way they look around.
He tells us about what he calls ‘eyeshock.’ “There is a buzz, a reflexive retinal buzz, whenever a man or woman born in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, or Bangladesh sees another from his or her part of the world in Sydney - a tribal pinprick, an instinct always reciprocal, like the instantaneous recognition of homosexuals in a repressive society.”
Here's the setup to the story. Two of the people Danny cleans apartments for, a man and a woman, are well-off legal Indian immigrants who are having an affair. The woman is married but her husband is clueless. The couple spends their time going to bars and playing slot machines. They like Danny and they often take him with them to bars, paying him for his time. He is their audience. They don’t call him Danny, they call him ‘Cleaner.’ “Come on, have a drink Cleaner!" (Danny doesn’t drink.) “Tell us a joke, Cleaner!”
Now the plot. The Indian woman has been found murdered.
But how can Danny go to the police without turning himself in as an illegal immigrant?
Pretty much all of the action takes place over a couple of days through cat-and-mouse phone calls between the Indian man and Danny. The Indian man tries to track Danny down and get him to ‘come clean his apartment one last time.’ To be honest, these 20 or so phone calls get a bit repetitive. Could we have got by with a dozen? Maybe the Indian man will simply try to bribe Danny - he only needs to keep Danny quiet for a day until he flies out of the country.
That’s Danny’s dilemma. Will he have the moral fortitude to do the right thing?
There’s more to the story too, told in flashbacks about Danny’s life before Australia and his relations with his girlfriend. But the beauty of this book is in the author’s ability to make the reader feel what it’s like to be inside the brown skin of a man on the run in a white-dominated society.
I liked the story too for having a lot of local color of Sydney, especially of its multi-ethnic downtown Glebe neighborhood. After all that is said, I also have to point out that I am in the minority in giving this book a ‘4.’ It’s relatively low-rated on GR – only a 3.3.
Aravind Adiga was born (1974) in Madras (now Chennai), India. His family emigrated to Australia (legally? lol) where he attended school, followed by college in the US and the UK. He has written five novels and is best known for The White Tiger which won the 2008 Booker Prize and was made into a Netflix movie.
Top photo of the Glebe district by Vaida Savickaite on domain.com.au
The author from npr.org
February 21, 2020
Danny, a young adult in his twenties from Sri Lanka, has been living in Australia illegally for four years as a cleaner. Soon into the novel, one of the residents that he cleaned for is killed. Danny might have an idea of what could have happened, but he internally struggles with the responsibility of this knowledge since the decision to help with the murder case could get him deported.
The novel takes place throughout this one day in Danny's life.
"But whoever did it, and for whatever reason, one thing was almost certain. The killer was a citizen.”
The story pays homage to the thoughts and difficult decisions that immigrants, specifically illegals, make throughout the day. It highlights questions of accountability and examines the echelons of humanity. Danny's flashbacks and encounters throughout the day also illuminate his own prejudice towards legal immigrants and citizens.
“Rich Asians and poor Asians don’t seem to talk to each other, and that’s how Australians make most of their money.”
The writing was disjointed and made it hard for me to read. I found myself rereading sentences often to make sure I read them correctly. Sometimes that made it hard to process different things that were occurring, which took away from the enjoyment. It is written in an unusual way and Danny was a peculiar character who had eccentric qualities.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy. Opinions are my own.
The novel takes place throughout this one day in Danny's life.
"But whoever did it, and for whatever reason, one thing was almost certain. The killer was a citizen.”
The story pays homage to the thoughts and difficult decisions that immigrants, specifically illegals, make throughout the day. It highlights questions of accountability and examines the echelons of humanity. Danny's flashbacks and encounters throughout the day also illuminate his own prejudice towards legal immigrants and citizens.
“Rich Asians and poor Asians don’t seem to talk to each other, and that’s how Australians make most of their money.”
The writing was disjointed and made it hard for me to read. I found myself rereading sentences often to make sure I read them correctly. Sometimes that made it hard to process different things that were occurring, which took away from the enjoyment. It is written in an unusual way and Danny was a peculiar character who had eccentric qualities.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy. Opinions are my own.
February 4, 2020
It's all about rules, so says Dhananjaya "Danny" Rajaratnam, an illegal immigrant from Sri Lanka. "Many of us flee chaos to come here. Aussies are an optimistic and methodical people...Understanding the concept of the rule that cannot be broken is vital to adjusting here." "Even before he got to Australia, Danny was practicing becoming Australian...[Danny must] eliminate the tics that Tamils bring to their English."
Securing a student visa for an overpriced "ripoff" of a university in Australia, Danny made the honest mistake of overstaying his visa after dropping out of school. Australia had"zero tolerance" for illegals. Now he lived in a storeroom above Tommo's Sunburst Grocery in Glebe. Danny's room was furnished with items discarded by others. He was allowed to use a small electric heater for up to forty minutes a night. A portion of his daily earnings as a cleaner must be paid to "middleman" Tommo. Armed with his "astronaut" backpack containing a vacuum, and a plastic bag of cleaning supplies, he traveled to his first job of the day.
Danny was rattled. While cleaning an apartment in Erskineville, three policemen ran up the stairs to the floor above. What a relief! They were not looking for Danny! Seeing increased police presence, he noticed that the window at house #5 across the street was open and Radha Thomas's husband, Mark was leaning out, his face red from crying. Mark had been informed that the body of his wife, Radha had been found floating in a creek, weighted down by a rock filled leather jacket. Danny strongly suspected he knew who committed the murder. "Does a person without rights still have responsibilities?...Should he come forward with knowledge of the crime and risk deportation?...Should he say nothing and let justice go undone?"
"Amnesty" by Aravind Adiga takes place over the course of one day. Danny struggles over whether to keep a low profile or expose a suspect. "He is a "brown man in a white man's city...Easiest thing in the world becoming invisible to white people who don't see you any way; but the hardest thing is becoming invisible to brown people who will see you no matter what." This reader was a little disappointed that the psychological tension wavered taking too long to play out. Author Adiga, however, created a timely, realistic tome concerning the difficulties faced by nameless people attempting to stay under the radar in a foreign country. The goal: survival.
Thank you Scribner and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "Amnesty".
Securing a student visa for an overpriced "ripoff" of a university in Australia, Danny made the honest mistake of overstaying his visa after dropping out of school. Australia had"zero tolerance" for illegals. Now he lived in a storeroom above Tommo's Sunburst Grocery in Glebe. Danny's room was furnished with items discarded by others. He was allowed to use a small electric heater for up to forty minutes a night. A portion of his daily earnings as a cleaner must be paid to "middleman" Tommo. Armed with his "astronaut" backpack containing a vacuum, and a plastic bag of cleaning supplies, he traveled to his first job of the day.
Danny was rattled. While cleaning an apartment in Erskineville, three policemen ran up the stairs to the floor above. What a relief! They were not looking for Danny! Seeing increased police presence, he noticed that the window at house #5 across the street was open and Radha Thomas's husband, Mark was leaning out, his face red from crying. Mark had been informed that the body of his wife, Radha had been found floating in a creek, weighted down by a rock filled leather jacket. Danny strongly suspected he knew who committed the murder. "Does a person without rights still have responsibilities?...Should he come forward with knowledge of the crime and risk deportation?...Should he say nothing and let justice go undone?"
"Amnesty" by Aravind Adiga takes place over the course of one day. Danny struggles over whether to keep a low profile or expose a suspect. "He is a "brown man in a white man's city...Easiest thing in the world becoming invisible to white people who don't see you any way; but the hardest thing is becoming invisible to brown people who will see you no matter what." This reader was a little disappointed that the psychological tension wavered taking too long to play out. Author Adiga, however, created a timely, realistic tome concerning the difficulties faced by nameless people attempting to stay under the radar in a foreign country. The goal: survival.
Thank you Scribner and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "Amnesty".
December 30, 2021
Dhananjaya Rajaraham (Danny) - a Tamil - was lured to Australia when reps from a 'vocational college' came to Sri Lanka to recruit students. Danny's father helped him pony up the airfare and tuition, and Danny entered Australia on a student visa. The 'college' turned out to be an old warehouse, and the administrators put him to work in a shabby food store. Danny concluded that the school was a scam, so he quit and became an undocumented immigrant.
After Danny left school he got a job in the Sunburst Grocery Store in Glebe, owned by Tommo Tsavdaridis.
Tommo paid Danny a pittance, let him sleep in the storeroom, and held his illegal status over his head. To make extra money Danny became a cleaner, vacuuming the floors and scrubbing the bathrooms of his clients for 60 dollars a pop.....of which Tommo took half.
*****
As the story opens Danny has been in Australia for four years and is still working at Sunburst Grocery and cleaning homes. Danny lives in constant fear of being nabbed by immigration authorities and deported, so he's very careful and secretive.
To maintain a low profile Danny tries to appear as 'Australian' as possible. Thus Danny 'mimics a man with an Australian spine' (stands up straight); wears shorts in public; keeps himself immaculately groomed; and throws around phrases like G'day mate.
Danny is doing a good job of staying under the radar until one of his former clients, a woman named Rhadha Thomas, is murdered. Until six months ago Danny had been cleaning two apartments for Rhadha: the one where she lives with her husband Mark; and the one occupied by her lover Prakash Wadhwa. Rhadha and Prakash, both Indian-Australians.....
…..had taken a liking to Danny, and would sometimes buy him meals and take him along to gambling casinos (pokies) - where they spent most of their time.
When Danny learns that Rhadha has been found dead in a creek, he's pretty sure he knows who killed her. This puts Danny on the horns of a dilemma: keep mum and let the murderer go free; or call the police and expose himself as an illegal alien. (Danny apparently doesn't think the police can solve the case themselves.)
As the story unfurls we follow Danny for an entire day (almost minute by minute) as he phones acquaintances; crisscrosses town on trains and buses;
Has flashbacks to his life in Sri Lanka;
Recalls his outings with Rhadha and Prakash;
Tries to 'feel out' the suspect; wishes he could get refugee status; worries about what to do;
.....and so on. Almost the whole time Danny carries a little cactus, a gift for his Vietnamese-Australian girlfriend Sonja, who works as a nurse. As it turns out the cactus comes in handy at one point. 😊
The book is essentially a treatise on what it's like to be an illegal immigrant in Australia. Australia's undocumented community is composed largely of Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, Malaysians, Nepalis, Chinese, and other Asians.
These 'brown people' can make themselves almost invisible to white Australians but have a kind of radar for each other when they pass in the street. The immigrants are desperate to stay in Australia, and - if they're caught - sometimes commit suicide rather than be sent home.
The story is told almost entirely from the perspective of immigrant Danny, who thinks of 'white Australians' as either rich entitled natives whose lifestyle is out of his reach.....
......or bogeymen who catch and deport illegals.
Danny is terribly worried, and it's hard to watch him cringe and kowtow and apologize again and again to keep 'the suspect' from dobbing him (turning him in). Danny's behavior highlights his determination to stay in the country.
Danny's tale is compelling but the story is too detailed and too slow. It's a chore to follow Danny through his harrowing day, but it's interesting to see what he does in the end.
The author, Aravind Adiga, is a talented Indian-Australian writer and journalist whose novel, The White Tiger, won the 2008 Man Booker Prize.
Author Aravind Adiga
'Amnesty', however, would have benefitted from tighter editing and more action. Still, the story is worth reading to gain insight into the lives and feelings of undocumented people.
You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot....
August 6, 2024
Tedious Not-so-thrilling Thriller
Review of the Scribner hardcover edition (2020)
I felt betrayed by the shill synopsis and blurbs which promised an intriguing cat and mouse game between an undocumented immigrant to Australia and their suspected culprit in the murder of a woman that they both knew. The actual result was quite tedious and a struggle to continue reading.
We are told many times that the immigrant is wearing a vacuum cleaner on his back as if it was an astronaut's oxygen pack while constantly observing a Coca-Cola sign somewhere in Sydney, Australia. I've never been to Sydney, but that Coca-Cola sign must be a prominent local feature based on this writing as it is mentioned at least a dozen times for no apparent reason.
Although the story is packaged as a day-in-the-life experience collapsed into a less than 24-hour time frame, it mostly consists of flashbacks to the Sri Lankan immigrant's days in his home country and as a hotel worker in Dubai, and of his past encounters with the suspected culprit and the victim. Very little pro-active crime solving takes place. You are led to expect some sort of clever outcome (implied by the Amnesty of the title) but the ending is a banal disappointment.
Unsatisfactory Ending Alert This 2020 reading pre-dated the invention of the Unsatisfactory Ending Alert in 2021 (in a review of Jane Harper's Dry), but a recent view caused me to retroactively add that tag as well.
Review of the Scribner hardcover edition (2020)
I felt betrayed by the shill synopsis and blurbs which promised an intriguing cat and mouse game between an undocumented immigrant to Australia and their suspected culprit in the murder of a woman that they both knew. The actual result was quite tedious and a struggle to continue reading.
We are told many times that the immigrant is wearing a vacuum cleaner on his back as if it was an astronaut's oxygen pack while constantly observing a Coca-Cola sign somewhere in Sydney, Australia. I've never been to Sydney, but that Coca-Cola sign must be a prominent local feature based on this writing as it is mentioned at least a dozen times for no apparent reason.
Although the story is packaged as a day-in-the-life experience collapsed into a less than 24-hour time frame, it mostly consists of flashbacks to the Sri Lankan immigrant's days in his home country and as a hotel worker in Dubai, and of his past encounters with the suspected culprit and the victim. Very little pro-active crime solving takes place. You are led to expect some sort of clever outcome (implied by the Amnesty of the title) but the ending is a banal disappointment.
Unsatisfactory Ending Alert This 2020 reading pre-dated the invention of the Unsatisfactory Ending Alert in 2021 (in a review of Jane Harper's Dry), but a recent view caused me to retroactively add that tag as well.
Read
March 19, 2020DNF at 53%. I decided to give up on this one as I was struggling to get through it. I concluded my TBR list was too long to spend time ploughing through a book I wasn’t enjoying. It’s a shame because I was very taken with the concept, which you can read in the blurb at the top of the page. To begin with I was looking forward to reading what the author made of the intriguing scenario he had created.
The novel itself, or the first half of it at least, is set across a single day of Danny’s life, the day he hears of the murder. It largely consists of various memories, musings and ponderings by Danny as he indecisively wanders the streets of Sydney after hearing the news. It’s well written of course, as you would expect from someone of the author’s standing, and he touches on some interesting ideas, but I simply found it a chore to read. I’m not trying to argue this is a bad book, but I would say the reader’s enjoyment will hinge on how much he or she likes the “stream of consciousness” style. It’s not something that always works for me, and definitely not on this occasion. No rating as I didn’t finish it.
The novel itself, or the first half of it at least, is set across a single day of Danny’s life, the day he hears of the murder. It largely consists of various memories, musings and ponderings by Danny as he indecisively wanders the streets of Sydney after hearing the news. It’s well written of course, as you would expect from someone of the author’s standing, and he touches on some interesting ideas, but I simply found it a chore to read. I’m not trying to argue this is a bad book, but I would say the reader’s enjoyment will hinge on how much he or she likes the “stream of consciousness” style. It’s not something that always works for me, and definitely not on this occasion. No rating as I didn’t finish it.
June 16, 2021
Now shortlisted for the 2021 Miles Franklin award.
Aravind Adiga’s “White Tiger” was I think the weakest Booker-winning book I have ever read: not my least favourite (there are other books which did not work for me at all – Disgrace, Brief History of Seven Killings, The Finkler Question – but where I would not question their literary merit) but in my view the least meritorious.
The book of course, many years pre-American Dirt, received criticisms of appropriation/inauthenticity (in this case less in ethnic terms than wealth ones) – and was also I felt too simplistic with a framing device (letters to the Chinese Premier) which made no sense and did not work.
His second novel – Selection Day – was more enjoyable for me, particularly given its cricket foundations, but lacked depth and direction I felt.
This is his third novel – and coincidentally the third I have read in 2020 which deals with Tamil immigration: after Nikita Lalwani’s “You People” and Minoli Salgado’s Republic of Consciousness Prize shortlisted short-story collection Broken Jaw.
Overall I would say it is the strongest of the author’s three novels, but the weakest of the three Tamil-diaspora novels I read.
The story is set over 11 hours in modern day Sydney but during that time ranges back over the life of the first party narrator Dhananjaya Rajaratnam.
Danny (as he is popularly known) grew up in Sri Lanka, returning there after a year working (and being ripped off by his employer) in a Dubai hotel, only to be interrogated and tortured on his return as a suspected LTTE/Tamil Tiger terrorist (due to a case of mistaken identity). When his family and neighbours seem more to doubt his story, he decided to leave the country – but unlike his cousin who flees via people smugglers to Canada and then claims asylum, he decides to get a student visa to Australia. When his college seems more of a front for low grade work and reminds him of his Dubai experience, he quits, lets his student visa deliberately expire, and realising that he has no hope of asylum I the circumstances, drops underground setting up his own word-of-mouth, one-man cleaning business.
As an aside the college experience was initially reminiscent of “Orchestra of Minorities”, but unlike that book, this is not a pure scam, more attempt to exploit the needy. As a further aside Danny’s “ deviated septum, his refractory sinuses” reminded me of "Midnight’s Children". Both of those are much better reads.
Buy Danny’s decision leaves him in a middle ground – between two types of immigrants: asylum seekers and legal immigrants:
One of Danny’s clients is Radha – married to Mark, a prosperous real estate seller, she is sacked from her government job when it turns out she has been borrowing funds during the week to fuel a gambling addiction – the rehab. for which allows her to meet another gambler, the unpredictable Prakash, with who she starts an affair, putting up Prakash in a spare flat her husband owns, employing Danny to clean it (albeit often interrupted by their lovemaking), the two of them adopting Danny as a kind of non-participating companion on their Pokie-playing trips. On the day of the book, Danny has broken his contract with them due to their concerns when they find he is illegal. He has also adopted a bleached blond quiff as part of an image makeover and finds a Vietnamese Vegan girlfriend Sonja.
The book’s plot is simple, coincidence heavy and more than a little silly.
Danny is cleaning one flat when he is told by police there has been a murder connected to the flats opposite, where Radha and Mark live. He quickly realises that Radha is the victim, and more crucially, via the location and a jacket used to warp the body, that Prakash is the murderer – something confirmed by Prakash’s mix of eccentricity and threats when he contacts them, something which leads him in the dilemma that frames the book.
Incidentally, for an Australian penal system based treatment of “dobbing” I can instead recommend “Prisoner Cell Block H”.
There is a late twist of sorts in the book – which seems even more pointless to me and also to reply on a coincidence.
Although the plot is weak the strength of the book is in its examination of the murky worlds of legal and illegal immigration, the tensions between the different groups of immigrants (particularly across the legal/illegal divide); the way in which Australian society is, at the same time, founded on racial prejudice (both against the indigenous population and incomers – as an aside the author slightly oddly has Danny drawing a largely discredited theory around Tamil/Aboriginal links), proud of its melting pot culture, and both completely reliant and unrelentingly hostile to immigrants; the difference between a society run on the absence of non-arbitrary law and absolute justice (Sri Lanka), and one run on law and justice, which even if it can be hard to come by for outsiders still gives them hope of an eventual fair hearing (Australia).
Overall an interesting read – but I would recommend instead the other novels, short story collection and TV series I have highlighted.
Aravind Adiga’s “White Tiger” was I think the weakest Booker-winning book I have ever read: not my least favourite (there are other books which did not work for me at all – Disgrace, Brief History of Seven Killings, The Finkler Question – but where I would not question their literary merit) but in my view the least meritorious.
The book of course, many years pre-American Dirt, received criticisms of appropriation/inauthenticity (in this case less in ethnic terms than wealth ones) – and was also I felt too simplistic with a framing device (letters to the Chinese Premier) which made no sense and did not work.
His second novel – Selection Day – was more enjoyable for me, particularly given its cricket foundations, but lacked depth and direction I felt.
This is his third novel – and coincidentally the third I have read in 2020 which deals with Tamil immigration: after Nikita Lalwani’s “You People” and Minoli Salgado’s Republic of Consciousness Prize shortlisted short-story collection Broken Jaw.
Overall I would say it is the strongest of the author’s three novels, but the weakest of the three Tamil-diaspora novels I read.
The story is set over 11 hours in modern day Sydney but during that time ranges back over the life of the first party narrator Dhananjaya Rajaratnam.
Danny (as he is popularly known) grew up in Sri Lanka, returning there after a year working (and being ripped off by his employer) in a Dubai hotel, only to be interrogated and tortured on his return as a suspected LTTE/Tamil Tiger terrorist (due to a case of mistaken identity). When his family and neighbours seem more to doubt his story, he decided to leave the country – but unlike his cousin who flees via people smugglers to Canada and then claims asylum, he decides to get a student visa to Australia. When his college seems more of a front for low grade work and reminds him of his Dubai experience, he quits, lets his student visa deliberately expire, and realising that he has no hope of asylum I the circumstances, drops underground setting up his own word-of-mouth, one-man cleaning business.
As an aside the college experience was initially reminiscent of “Orchestra of Minorities”, but unlike that book, this is not a pure scam, more attempt to exploit the needy. As a further aside Danny’s “ deviated septum, his refractory sinuses” reminded me of "Midnight’s Children". Both of those are much better reads.
Buy Danny’s decision leaves him in a middle ground – between two types of immigrants: asylum seekers and legal immigrants:
He had not played the game right …… people were running from countries that were burning to not-yet-burning ones; catching boats, cutting barbed wire, smuggling into containers at the bottom of ships, while another set of people were trying to stop, stall, catch or turn them back ….
There were definite rules in this game: either you braved it, got on the boat, got caught by the Coast Guard, went to special jail - in which case there were lawyers, social workers .. left wing [campaigners] …. who would help you (rush to help you, then to post pictures of their generosity on Facebook) – or you arrived by plane, legally with a visa printed on your passport, went to their dodgy colleges, said Sorry Sorry Sorry when they yelled, and cleaned their toilet bowls for five or six years, before becoming a citizen in the seventh ….
What you did not do was to fall in between these two by coming to Australia legally and then sliding under, appearing to be one thing and then another, because that made you an illegal’s illegal, with no one to scream for you and no one to represent you in court. And this custom-made cell within the global prison was Danny’s own, a personal hot coal he had forged for himself to stand on.
One of Danny’s clients is Radha – married to Mark, a prosperous real estate seller, she is sacked from her government job when it turns out she has been borrowing funds during the week to fuel a gambling addiction – the rehab. for which allows her to meet another gambler, the unpredictable Prakash, with who she starts an affair, putting up Prakash in a spare flat her husband owns, employing Danny to clean it (albeit often interrupted by their lovemaking), the two of them adopting Danny as a kind of non-participating companion on their Pokie-playing trips. On the day of the book, Danny has broken his contract with them due to their concerns when they find he is illegal. He has also adopted a bleached blond quiff as part of an image makeover and finds a Vietnamese Vegan girlfriend Sonja.
The book’s plot is simple, coincidence heavy and more than a little silly.
Danny is cleaning one flat when he is told by police there has been a murder connected to the flats opposite, where Radha and Mark live. He quickly realises that Radha is the victim, and more crucially, via the location and a jacket used to warp the body, that Prakash is the murderer – something confirmed by Prakash’s mix of eccentricity and threats when he contacts them, something which leads him in the dilemma that frames the book.
But even if the police believed you, and phoned [Prakash], he would guess at once you were the one who dobbed him in, and in return, he would dob you in as an illegal. He would call the immigration dob-in number bout the Legendary Cleaner who was illegal, give his name, and what he looked like, and where he lived, because the dead woman had told him everything
Incidentally, for an Australian penal system based treatment of “dobbing” I can instead recommend “Prisoner Cell Block H”.
There is a late twist of sorts in the book – which seems even more pointless to me and also to reply on a coincidence.
Although the plot is weak the strength of the book is in its examination of the murky worlds of legal and illegal immigration, the tensions between the different groups of immigrants (particularly across the legal/illegal divide); the way in which Australian society is, at the same time, founded on racial prejudice (both against the indigenous population and incomers – as an aside the author slightly oddly has Danny drawing a largely discredited theory around Tamil/Aboriginal links), proud of its melting pot culture, and both completely reliant and unrelentingly hostile to immigrants; the difference between a society run on the absence of non-arbitrary law and absolute justice (Sri Lanka), and one run on law and justice, which even if it can be hard to come by for outsiders still gives them hope of an eventual fair hearing (Australia).
Easiest thing in the world, becoming invisible to white people, who don’t see you anyway; but the hardest thing is becoming invisible to brown people, who will see you no matter what
It is an Indonesia inside Australia, an archipelago of illegals, each isolated from each other and kept weak, and fearful, by this isolation
A city and a civilization built on the principle of the exclusion of men and women who were not white, and which fully outgrew that principle only a generation ago
Rich Asians and poor Asians don’t seem to talk to each other, and that’s how Australians make most of their money.
Many of us flee chaos to come here. Aussies are an optimistic and methodical people...Understanding the concept of the rule that cannot be broken is vital to adjusting here. .
Overall an interesting read – but I would recommend instead the other novels, short story collection and TV series I have highlighted.
February 18, 2020
I’m not entirely sure how to feel about this one. Certainly the premise is enticing: an undocumented immigrant from Sri Lanka currently living in Australia is a potential witness in a violent crime. This isn’t just a possibility, but a reality for many from undocumented communities all over the world. Fear of deportation or imprisonment is so great that they are wary to go to the authorities when they themselves are victims of crimes, and therefore are more likely to be victims than perpetrators.
But the execution of this idea is a little all over the place for me. We follow a man, Danny, who is slowly unraveling in trying to decide what to do with the information he possesses. We get flashbacks to various times in his life, such as his time back home in Sri Lanka or spending time in Australia with his girlfriend, and get the context for whatever small decision he’s about to make. As a rule, he almost always picks the one that makes the least sense. I haven’t read The White Tiger or anything else by Aravind Adiga, so I’m not sure if this is his writing style or not, but I found it hard to get a grip on Danny. I really don’t know if he’s generally unstable or if it’s a heightened sense of dread around the murder or the just the sheer panic of deportation that makes him so erratic, but it was hard to connect to.
I found Adiga’s commentary on the differences between legal and illegal immigrants as well as between immigrants and their first generation descendants to be really fascinating. It’s something you don’t think about, being a white person in a white-majority country, but a reality for millions of people worldwide. Danny is just trying to exist and scrape by, but even the smallest thing that we take for granted could be an immense obstacle for him. In these comparisons and reflections I feel like the novel excelled.
Overall, I think it was a little too disjointed for me. Though it’s only 272 pages, so much seemed to ramble on and on. The entire plot only spans one day in Danny’s life and he spends so much time going over the same things again and again. It’s not a thriller, but somehow is a bit tedious while leaving me feeling anxious. Still, it could be worth it to some readers who find the subject matter interesting.
*Thanks to Scribner & Netgalley for an advance copy!
But the execution of this idea is a little all over the place for me. We follow a man, Danny, who is slowly unraveling in trying to decide what to do with the information he possesses. We get flashbacks to various times in his life, such as his time back home in Sri Lanka or spending time in Australia with his girlfriend, and get the context for whatever small decision he’s about to make. As a rule, he almost always picks the one that makes the least sense. I haven’t read The White Tiger or anything else by Aravind Adiga, so I’m not sure if this is his writing style or not, but I found it hard to get a grip on Danny. I really don’t know if he’s generally unstable or if it’s a heightened sense of dread around the murder or the just the sheer panic of deportation that makes him so erratic, but it was hard to connect to.
I found Adiga’s commentary on the differences between legal and illegal immigrants as well as between immigrants and their first generation descendants to be really fascinating. It’s something you don’t think about, being a white person in a white-majority country, but a reality for millions of people worldwide. Danny is just trying to exist and scrape by, but even the smallest thing that we take for granted could be an immense obstacle for him. In these comparisons and reflections I feel like the novel excelled.
Overall, I think it was a little too disjointed for me. Though it’s only 272 pages, so much seemed to ramble on and on. The entire plot only spans one day in Danny’s life and he spends so much time going over the same things again and again. It’s not a thriller, but somehow is a bit tedious while leaving me feeling anxious. Still, it could be worth it to some readers who find the subject matter interesting.
*Thanks to Scribner & Netgalley for an advance copy!
June 24, 2021
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2021 MILES FRANKLIN AWARD
Danny’s thoughts about wanting to meet a mermaid as a child are interrupted by the lady asking him, “What are you?” He is baffled by the question. Then she elaborates that he is a “perfectionist” because of the way he made his sandwich, THEN she tells him that what she has just said is irony. Danny knows the definition of irony. He is just a little confused by the context in which it has been used. Danny, although meticulously working on his Australian accent, dropping his V’s, mimicking mannerisms, is still Sri Lankan. Australians continue to confuse him.
Danny is a Tamil man. He is one of a minority. Firstly, a minority as a Tamil in Sri Lanka and now a minority as a Sri Lankan living in Australia. He knows no other way of living.
Danny is living in Sydney, but he is doing so illegally. He is an “illegal”.
He did not arrive on a sinking boat full of refugees all fleeing homelands, most of them for their lives. He arrived in a plane. He had a visa and was attending a technical college. He had applied for refugee status but had been refused. Ironically his legal entry into the country proving detrimental to his application.
He became an illegal immigrant when he, after recognizing the college course for the scam it truly was, dropped out and then overstayed his twenty-eight days allowed to all immigrants who drop the course. After the twenty-eight days expired so did all his rights in Australia.
For the past couple of years Danny had been cleaning apartments around Sydney and keeping his head down. Although anxious about being discovered and deported, he was flying underneath the radar quite successfully until one of his clients was murdered by another. Danny just happens to know both clients. They were having an affair and had taken a liking to him and often took him along on outings. The novel then becomes quite suspenseful with a “cat and mouse” scenario playing out. Frantic phone calls are frequently made between the killer and Danny. Danny is paralyzed, fearful that if he turns the killer in to the police then he will be deported. Then there is the fact that the killer while threatening to tell the authorities about Danny’s illegal status may in fact just be going to kill him.
The narrative takes the form of Danny’s day and chapters are broken into precise times of the day, but there is no order, apart from progression. Progression to the time Prakash, the killer, will be hopping on a plane to South Africa. This heightens the suspense and as the day goes on the phone calls become more regular and it almost feels as if you, along with Danny, are on a train track heading off a cliff, safety brakes disabled. Prakash wants Danny to meet him, and clean his house, before he leaves the country.
Again, however, this novel is about much more. It is about illegal immigrants and refugees. The cold dark liminal world they are forced to live in. But it is also about legal refugees. They may be legal in the eyes of the law, have the right papers, but many must still feel outsiders, especially those who have fled their homelands simply to survive, a choice forced upon them, not a choice at all. So many treated as second class citizens.
As you read on you realize that Danny and Prakash are metaphorical representations of the two types of immigrants. Illegal and Legal.
The novel is also a study of morality and ethics. If you were in Danny’s shoes would you be able to make the morally correct choice and turn Prakash in, knowing that the result would be your deportation? Danny wants to make the call, he believes in the law and justice, he struggles with the decision throughout the whole book.
Will he make the call?
The format of the time intervals makes the novel an enjoyable and suspenseful read. And Adiga does a good job of providing a peek into the world of illegal immigrants in Sydney.
Danny’s thoughts about wanting to meet a mermaid as a child are interrupted by the lady asking him, “What are you?” He is baffled by the question. Then she elaborates that he is a “perfectionist” because of the way he made his sandwich, THEN she tells him that what she has just said is irony. Danny knows the definition of irony. He is just a little confused by the context in which it has been used. Danny, although meticulously working on his Australian accent, dropping his V’s, mimicking mannerisms, is still Sri Lankan. Australians continue to confuse him.
Danny is a Tamil man. He is one of a minority. Firstly, a minority as a Tamil in Sri Lanka and now a minority as a Sri Lankan living in Australia. He knows no other way of living.
Danny is living in Sydney, but he is doing so illegally. He is an “illegal”.
He did not arrive on a sinking boat full of refugees all fleeing homelands, most of them for their lives. He arrived in a plane. He had a visa and was attending a technical college. He had applied for refugee status but had been refused. Ironically his legal entry into the country proving detrimental to his application.
He became an illegal immigrant when he, after recognizing the college course for the scam it truly was, dropped out and then overstayed his twenty-eight days allowed to all immigrants who drop the course. After the twenty-eight days expired so did all his rights in Australia.
For the past couple of years Danny had been cleaning apartments around Sydney and keeping his head down. Although anxious about being discovered and deported, he was flying underneath the radar quite successfully until one of his clients was murdered by another. Danny just happens to know both clients. They were having an affair and had taken a liking to him and often took him along on outings. The novel then becomes quite suspenseful with a “cat and mouse” scenario playing out. Frantic phone calls are frequently made between the killer and Danny. Danny is paralyzed, fearful that if he turns the killer in to the police then he will be deported. Then there is the fact that the killer while threatening to tell the authorities about Danny’s illegal status may in fact just be going to kill him.
The narrative takes the form of Danny’s day and chapters are broken into precise times of the day, but there is no order, apart from progression. Progression to the time Prakash, the killer, will be hopping on a plane to South Africa. This heightens the suspense and as the day goes on the phone calls become more regular and it almost feels as if you, along with Danny, are on a train track heading off a cliff, safety brakes disabled. Prakash wants Danny to meet him, and clean his house, before he leaves the country.
Again, however, this novel is about much more. It is about illegal immigrants and refugees. The cold dark liminal world they are forced to live in. But it is also about legal refugees. They may be legal in the eyes of the law, have the right papers, but many must still feel outsiders, especially those who have fled their homelands simply to survive, a choice forced upon them, not a choice at all. So many treated as second class citizens.
As you read on you realize that Danny and Prakash are metaphorical representations of the two types of immigrants. Illegal and Legal.
The novel is also a study of morality and ethics. If you were in Danny’s shoes would you be able to make the morally correct choice and turn Prakash in, knowing that the result would be your deportation? Danny wants to make the call, he believes in the law and justice, he struggles with the decision throughout the whole book.
Will he make the call?
The format of the time intervals makes the novel an enjoyable and suspenseful read. And Adiga does a good job of providing a peek into the world of illegal immigrants in Sydney.
July 10, 2021
*** Shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Prize 2021 ***
”Danny had come to Australia by plane and then applied for refugee status and been told to fuck off.”
The book opens with a beautiful description of the Sri Lankan coastline. Where the fish can sing. Absolutely true. A place where ”at midnight, the water’s skin breaks, and the kadal kanni, mermaids, emerge out of the lagoon, dripping with moonlight. From the time he was about four or five years old, Danny had wanted to talk to a mermaid.”
Fast forward twenty or so years, and we meet Danny - Dhananjaya Rajaratnam - working as a cleaner in Sydney. An illegal immigrant with thoughts of mermaids far behind him. He now has golden highlights in his hair, and has learnt to drop his vowels to talk more like an Aussie ”No one would ever again mistake him for someone born outside of Australia.”
It’s fitting that this book is titled Amnesty. Ponder on this. On the meaning. What does it mean to you? How does it touch your life, if at all?
This is another one of those books that made me think about the absolute randomness of life. A favourite theme of mine I know. Yet so much of life is random and beyond our control. As is Danny’s destiny, as most of the book has him playing a cat-and-mouse game with someone he suspects of being the killer of a woman that Danny used to clean the flat for.
2.52pm 2.54pm 2.55pm
A day in the life of Danny. The day he discovers that Radha Thomas’ body has been found in a creek bed, wearing a leather jacket weighted down with rocks. Danny knows that jacket. Danny knows who it belongs to. Danny has been to that creek.
Set in Sydney around the CBD and inner west, it was the strangest thing. While I recognized the city (the streets, the suburbs, the landmarks), I didn’t recognize it. My city was described from such a different perspective to the one I know. Which got me thinking how much we all live in our little worlds, even within the same city. How multi-layered it all is, with most of us being completely unaware of others’ existence.
There’s a great line ”...a man in prison has a choice: either break out or make his cell as big as the world.” Danny is unsure of which option to take. Dob in a suspected murderer, which will in effect expose him as living off a long expired visa, or keep quiet and battle with his conscience? Life is definitely not so clear cut, even though it would seem to be from the outside looking in.
I like to think that one day at midnight, the mermaids will indeed reveal themselves to Danny.
I’m torn with how I feel about this book. In some parts I was completely invested in the story, and then other times I felt like time had stalled, and I hadn’t gotten any further with it, though the page numbers said otherwise. It was a strange experience. For such a short book (at around 250 pages), it took me a long time to read it. It just didn’t seem like one I could “rush” or read quickly. I’d put it down, and think about it. Parts of it were hard slog. Others were moments of yes, that’s exactly the irony (a word used often) of life.
I’m hovering at a rating, but I think 3.5 ★ Adiga tackles so many difficult issues and brings so many questions to the fore about this crazy, mixed up world we live in. Identity. Loss of homeland. Where is home? How do you define it? He shows that belonging and fitting in is not always so clear cut or easy, no matter how desperately we try.
As an aside, I’d imagine this story would make a brilliant mini-series. So topical. Come on ABC, pick this one up! It’d be a winner.
*** Shout out to Randwick City Library for the copy of this book. Hope to see your doors open again soon. ***
”Danny had come to Australia by plane and then applied for refugee status and been told to fuck off.”
The book opens with a beautiful description of the Sri Lankan coastline. Where the fish can sing. Absolutely true. A place where ”at midnight, the water’s skin breaks, and the kadal kanni, mermaids, emerge out of the lagoon, dripping with moonlight. From the time he was about four or five years old, Danny had wanted to talk to a mermaid.”
Fast forward twenty or so years, and we meet Danny - Dhananjaya Rajaratnam - working as a cleaner in Sydney. An illegal immigrant with thoughts of mermaids far behind him. He now has golden highlights in his hair, and has learnt to drop his vowels to talk more like an Aussie ”No one would ever again mistake him for someone born outside of Australia.”
It’s fitting that this book is titled Amnesty. Ponder on this. On the meaning. What does it mean to you? How does it touch your life, if at all?
This is another one of those books that made me think about the absolute randomness of life. A favourite theme of mine I know. Yet so much of life is random and beyond our control. As is Danny’s destiny, as most of the book has him playing a cat-and-mouse game with someone he suspects of being the killer of a woman that Danny used to clean the flat for.
2.52pm 2.54pm 2.55pm
A day in the life of Danny. The day he discovers that Radha Thomas’ body has been found in a creek bed, wearing a leather jacket weighted down with rocks. Danny knows that jacket. Danny knows who it belongs to. Danny has been to that creek.
Set in Sydney around the CBD and inner west, it was the strangest thing. While I recognized the city (the streets, the suburbs, the landmarks), I didn’t recognize it. My city was described from such a different perspective to the one I know. Which got me thinking how much we all live in our little worlds, even within the same city. How multi-layered it all is, with most of us being completely unaware of others’ existence.
There’s a great line ”...a man in prison has a choice: either break out or make his cell as big as the world.” Danny is unsure of which option to take. Dob in a suspected murderer, which will in effect expose him as living off a long expired visa, or keep quiet and battle with his conscience? Life is definitely not so clear cut, even though it would seem to be from the outside looking in.
I like to think that one day at midnight, the mermaids will indeed reveal themselves to Danny.
I’m torn with how I feel about this book. In some parts I was completely invested in the story, and then other times I felt like time had stalled, and I hadn’t gotten any further with it, though the page numbers said otherwise. It was a strange experience. For such a short book (at around 250 pages), it took me a long time to read it. It just didn’t seem like one I could “rush” or read quickly. I’d put it down, and think about it. Parts of it were hard slog. Others were moments of yes, that’s exactly the irony (a word used often) of life.
I’m hovering at a rating, but I think 3.5 ★ Adiga tackles so many difficult issues and brings so many questions to the fore about this crazy, mixed up world we live in. Identity. Loss of homeland. Where is home? How do you define it? He shows that belonging and fitting in is not always so clear cut or easy, no matter how desperately we try.
As an aside, I’d imagine this story would make a brilliant mini-series. So topical. Come on ABC, pick this one up! It’d be a winner.
*** Shout out to Randwick City Library for the copy of this book. Hope to see your doors open again soon. ***
March 4, 2020
“Danny divided Sydney into two kinds of suburbs – thick bum, where the working classes lived, ate badly, and cleaned for themselves; and thin bum, where the fit and young people ate salads and jogged a lot but almost never cleaned their own homes.”
Danny has been living as an illegal in Sydney Australia for 4 years. He cleans apartments for a living and turns over a large chunk of his earnings to a shop owner who lets Danny sleep in a small room. He and his fellow illegals (as they refer to themselves) are constantly subject to being exploited because they cannot risk exposure and their existence in Australia is always precarious. They do not have access to the rights and privileges available to citizens or legal immigrants. “Though it denied him medical care, a driver’s license, and police protection, the Australian state offered Danny unlimited and unmonitored access to its public reading rooms and information centers.” When a group of illegals puzzled over why Australians are so rich: “Australians aren’t particularly bright. They don’t work hard. They drink too much. So you tell me. Why are they so rich?” they concluded “It’s because white people have got the law, and we don’t.”
This book covers a special day in the life of Danny because on this day he learns that Radha, one of his former clients, was murdered and he suspects that her lover Prakash was the murderer. If Danny goes to the police he risks deportation.That dilemma is pretty much all there is to this book, which could have been a short story. There are flashbacks to Danny’s life in Sri Lanka, his work in Dubai and his extremely improbable relationship with Radha and Prakash. It seems that after their trysts the two lovers would take Danny on little excursions with them. Really, how likely was that?
Even though this book was short, I felt that it should have been even shorter. I found it disjointed and rambling, but I liked Danny and I appreciated the glimpse into the lives of these immigrants. 3.5 stars
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
Danny has been living as an illegal in Sydney Australia for 4 years. He cleans apartments for a living and turns over a large chunk of his earnings to a shop owner who lets Danny sleep in a small room. He and his fellow illegals (as they refer to themselves) are constantly subject to being exploited because they cannot risk exposure and their existence in Australia is always precarious. They do not have access to the rights and privileges available to citizens or legal immigrants. “Though it denied him medical care, a driver’s license, and police protection, the Australian state offered Danny unlimited and unmonitored access to its public reading rooms and information centers.” When a group of illegals puzzled over why Australians are so rich: “Australians aren’t particularly bright. They don’t work hard. They drink too much. So you tell me. Why are they so rich?” they concluded “It’s because white people have got the law, and we don’t.”
This book covers a special day in the life of Danny because on this day he learns that Radha, one of his former clients, was murdered and he suspects that her lover Prakash was the murderer. If Danny goes to the police he risks deportation.That dilemma is pretty much all there is to this book, which could have been a short story. There are flashbacks to Danny’s life in Sri Lanka, his work in Dubai and his extremely improbable relationship with Radha and Prakash. It seems that after their trysts the two lovers would take Danny on little excursions with them. Really, how likely was that?
Even though this book was short, I felt that it should have been even shorter. I found it disjointed and rambling, but I liked Danny and I appreciated the glimpse into the lives of these immigrants. 3.5 stars
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
March 17, 2020
Danny is an illegal alien from Sri Lanka! He entered Australia legally, but has let his visa expire. Although he applied for asylum, he was denied because he wasn’t smuggled in on a boat which would highlight his level of desperation and fear. So this Tamal Christian currently earns his living as a ‘cleaner’, and seeks invisibility so he won’t be deported.
So what is he to do when he is a witness to a murder—and the murderer knows it? The cat-and-mouse game between Danny and the murderer takes up the bulk of the narrative. Will Danny call the police to report he is a witness; or will he be reported upon as an illegal? Along the way, Adiga exposes the sociological netherworld in which illegals live.
So what is he to do when he is a witness to a murder—and the murderer knows it? The cat-and-mouse game between Danny and the murderer takes up the bulk of the narrative. Will Danny call the police to report he is a witness; or will he be reported upon as an illegal? Along the way, Adiga exposes the sociological netherworld in which illegals live.
October 5, 2022
O dilema de um ilegal que sabe que se denunciar à polícia o autor de um homicídio será, certamente, expulso da Austrália.
O que mais me surpreendeu neste livro foi, não tanto esse dilema moral, mas as relações humanas entre legais e ilegais dentro das comunidades migratórias.
Surpreendentemente, ou talvez não, os legais não têm qualquer empatia ou solidariedade com os ilegais , sendo os seus piores inimigos. Principalmente os que começaram por ser ilegais .
Este livro diz muito sobre a natureza humana no seu pior .
O que mais me surpreendeu neste livro foi, não tanto esse dilema moral, mas as relações humanas entre legais e ilegais dentro das comunidades migratórias.
Surpreendentemente, ou talvez não, os legais não têm qualquer empatia ou solidariedade com os ilegais , sendo os seus piores inimigos. Principalmente os que começaram por ser ilegais .
Este livro diz muito sobre a natureza humana no seu pior .
February 13, 2020
In Amnesty, Aravind Adiga tells the story of Dhananjaya Rajaratnam, a Sri Lankan Tamil from Batticaloa, the most beautiful and mysterious city on the Sri Lankan coast, famous for its magical lagoon with its singing fish. Danny returns to Batticaloa after working for a year as a motel clerk in Dubai — wearing a suit to work! — and finds himself suspected and tortured by local police for involvement in the Tamil Tigers. Danny hops a flight to Sydney on a student visa, decides that diploma mill for foreigners seeking citizenship is too expensive, and files a futile petition for asylum. Danny chooses life as an illegal immigrant: Asylum follows him through his four years in Australia. This is a classic immigration story, but set in Australia and with an apparently middle class immigrant.
Asylum contains many wonderful touches. Danny pretends to be vegetarian, so that he can find a girlfriend through the online app VeggieDate, but he yearns for mutton, pork, and chicken; he takes two stuffed pandas to bed in his storeroom bedroom above a small grocery store in Glebe; he divides Sydney suburbs into thick bum — working class — and thin bum — Yuppie. He supports himself as a Legendary Cleaner who never wears a face mask to avoid frightening clients. Most of all, Danny strives to look as Australian and as unobtrusive as possible, especially fearing the wealthy and middle class icebox Indians and the Tamils in Australia legally, thinking that they will immediately identify him as illegal.
Adiga interjects many poignant touches into Asylum. Danny ruefully prides himself as honest, reliable, and intelligent. He finds some comfort in downtown Sydney, with its polyglot, multiracial crowds, and panics in Sydney’s white suburbs, where he fears identification as illegal. Danny works hard at assimilating, or at least at what he believes is assimilating: he takes care not to pronounce the “p” in “receipt”, he takes notes on the different types of rugby, he highlights his hair. In the end, Danny must choose between his own uprightness and his life in Australia.
Asylum provides a different perspective on immigration than other excellent recent novels such as Mohsin Hamid's Exit West, Sunjeev Sahota's The Year of the Runaways, Valeria Luiselli's Lost Children Archive, and Yuri Herrera's Signs Proceeding the End of the World. I’ve read four of Aravind Adiga’s five novels, and all feature transparently lucid prose, what feels like effortless writing, and characters and situations that veer between utmost seriousness and cockeyed humor. Asylum ranks with Adiga’s best.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for access to this ARC.
4.5 stars
Asylum contains many wonderful touches. Danny pretends to be vegetarian, so that he can find a girlfriend through the online app VeggieDate, but he yearns for mutton, pork, and chicken; he takes two stuffed pandas to bed in his storeroom bedroom above a small grocery store in Glebe; he divides Sydney suburbs into thick bum — working class — and thin bum — Yuppie. He supports himself as a Legendary Cleaner who never wears a face mask to avoid frightening clients. Most of all, Danny strives to look as Australian and as unobtrusive as possible, especially fearing the wealthy and middle class icebox Indians and the Tamils in Australia legally, thinking that they will immediately identify him as illegal.
Adiga interjects many poignant touches into Asylum. Danny ruefully prides himself as honest, reliable, and intelligent. He finds some comfort in downtown Sydney, with its polyglot, multiracial crowds, and panics in Sydney’s white suburbs, where he fears identification as illegal. Danny works hard at assimilating, or at least at what he believes is assimilating: he takes care not to pronounce the “p” in “receipt”, he takes notes on the different types of rugby, he highlights his hair. In the end, Danny must choose between his own uprightness and his life in Australia.
Asylum provides a different perspective on immigration than other excellent recent novels such as Mohsin Hamid's Exit West, Sunjeev Sahota's The Year of the Runaways, Valeria Luiselli's Lost Children Archive, and Yuri Herrera's Signs Proceeding the End of the World. I’ve read four of Aravind Adiga’s five novels, and all feature transparently lucid prose, what feels like effortless writing, and characters and situations that veer between utmost seriousness and cockeyed humor. Asylum ranks with Adiga’s best.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for access to this ARC.
4.5 stars
February 12, 2020
For four years young Sri Lankan man Danny Rajaratnam has lived an invisible life in Sydney as an illegal immigrant. He's suppressed his Tamil accent to achieve something that sounds - while not exactly Australian - quite neutral, he's paid to have golden highlights in his hair, he takes care to heed the particular instructions of his housecleaning clients to avoid confrontation and he always travels with a validated ticket on public transport.
Easiest thing in the world, becoming invisible to white people, who don’t see you anyway; but the hardest thing is becoming invisible to brown people, who will see you no matter what.
Danny takes care to blend in because he was denied refugee status but is determined that he is never going back home.
One morning, while cleaning the home of Daryl the Lawyer, Danny becomes aware of something unusual happening outside. It's the police - big and loud. Of course he doesn't want to attract their attention, so it takes a little while for him to learn that the body of a woman who lives across the road has been found, murdered, in a creek. Then hardly any time at all to work out that the woman was Radha the Medicare Exec, another of his clients. He'd been cleaning the home she shared with her husband for two years, as well as their investment property in Potts Point, where she had installed her lover, Doctor Prakash, rent-free. For some time, Danny had played a willing third-wheel in Radha & Prakash's affair, accepting their free meals and a kind a friendship. So naturally, Danny's instinct is to call Prakash. And so begins a game of cat and mouse that plays out through the inner suburbs of Sydney during the rest of that day, as Danny wrestles with his conscience to decide whether he will tell the police about Prakash and risk deportation.
I really enjoyed this very contemporary and topical story of suspense. While there is a murder involved, it's not a particularly dark story; rather the suspense comes more from the will-he-or-won't-he vacillations of the endlessly likeable main character.
Adiga paints a vivid picture of inner Sydney with a perspective that we don't often get to read (about Sydney) - that of 'the brown man' - and does it very well.
There is a buzz, a reflexive retinal buzz, whenever a man or woman born in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, or Bangladesh sees another from his or her part of the world in Sydney—a tribal pinprick, an instinct always reciprocal, like the instantaneous recognition of homosexuals in a repressive society. Because even if both of you believe that one brown man holds no special significance for another in Sydney—a city and a civilization built on the principle of the exclusion of men and women who were not white, and which fully outgrew that principle only a generation ago—which is to say, even if you want to stay icebox or indifferent in the presence of the other brown man, you are helpless. You have to look at him just as he has to look at you. Eyeshock.
I was unsure whether he was being too ambitious, attempting to tell a story that, due to its constricted timeframe, is so reliant on detail. But I imagine that during the 5 years it's taken to write Amnesty, he must have spent a lot of time in Sydney, because apart from one or two small blips, he has nailed it!
With thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan Australia for an uncorrected advance copy to read. (Note that the quotes I have provided above may change prior to publication.)
Easiest thing in the world, becoming invisible to white people, who don’t see you anyway; but the hardest thing is becoming invisible to brown people, who will see you no matter what.
Danny takes care to blend in because he was denied refugee status but is determined that he is never going back home.
One morning, while cleaning the home of Daryl the Lawyer, Danny becomes aware of something unusual happening outside. It's the police - big and loud. Of course he doesn't want to attract their attention, so it takes a little while for him to learn that the body of a woman who lives across the road has been found, murdered, in a creek. Then hardly any time at all to work out that the woman was Radha the Medicare Exec, another of his clients. He'd been cleaning the home she shared with her husband for two years, as well as their investment property in Potts Point, where she had installed her lover, Doctor Prakash, rent-free. For some time, Danny had played a willing third-wheel in Radha & Prakash's affair, accepting their free meals and a kind a friendship. So naturally, Danny's instinct is to call Prakash. And so begins a game of cat and mouse that plays out through the inner suburbs of Sydney during the rest of that day, as Danny wrestles with his conscience to decide whether he will tell the police about Prakash and risk deportation.
I really enjoyed this very contemporary and topical story of suspense. While there is a murder involved, it's not a particularly dark story; rather the suspense comes more from the will-he-or-won't-he vacillations of the endlessly likeable main character.
Adiga paints a vivid picture of inner Sydney with a perspective that we don't often get to read (about Sydney) - that of 'the brown man' - and does it very well.
There is a buzz, a reflexive retinal buzz, whenever a man or woman born in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, or Bangladesh sees another from his or her part of the world in Sydney—a tribal pinprick, an instinct always reciprocal, like the instantaneous recognition of homosexuals in a repressive society. Because even if both of you believe that one brown man holds no special significance for another in Sydney—a city and a civilization built on the principle of the exclusion of men and women who were not white, and which fully outgrew that principle only a generation ago—which is to say, even if you want to stay icebox or indifferent in the presence of the other brown man, you are helpless. You have to look at him just as he has to look at you. Eyeshock.
I was unsure whether he was being too ambitious, attempting to tell a story that, due to its constricted timeframe, is so reliant on detail. But I imagine that during the 5 years it's taken to write Amnesty, he must have spent a lot of time in Sydney, because apart from one or two small blips, he has nailed it!
With thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan Australia for an uncorrected advance copy to read. (Note that the quotes I have provided above may change prior to publication.)
April 7, 2020
Dhananjaya Rajarathnam was born in Batticaloa Sri Lanka. It's the jewel of the East known for its fire walkers, tongue-piercers and silver beaches where you can put a reed to your ear, lean down from your paddle boat, and hear the music of the fish.
But now Dhananjaya is just Danny, sitting on a Sydney train, a Turbo Model E Super Suction power vacuum strapped to his back on his way to his next cleaning gig.
For the last 4 years he's worked at becoming invisible. As an illegal in Australia he minds his posture, never spits in public and works to eliminate the tics of his mother tongue. But now, privy to key information that might solve a recent murder, Danny must wrestle between staying quiet and staying in Australia or going to the police with what he knows and face the threat of deportation.
Danny has spent his time in Australia paying keen attention and now, in the single day recounted here, the city is sending him signals. Street signs, store windows, radio snippets and even his own phone send cryptic messages, singing an urban key.
Meanwhile he has to contend with the killer himself, verbally sparring back and forth over the phone. He offers up an easy out, speaking up has never led to anything good for Danny, a cigarette burn on his forearm a testament to his past inability to pay attention to the rules around him. Danny is, and has always been, a faker - a fake citizen in Australia even a fake vegan to his girlfriend. Staying quiet means staying safe.
An examination of illegals making their way in the world, hidden in plain sight - wrapped up in a tight little crime thriller.
But now Dhananjaya is just Danny, sitting on a Sydney train, a Turbo Model E Super Suction power vacuum strapped to his back on his way to his next cleaning gig.
For the last 4 years he's worked at becoming invisible. As an illegal in Australia he minds his posture, never spits in public and works to eliminate the tics of his mother tongue. But now, privy to key information that might solve a recent murder, Danny must wrestle between staying quiet and staying in Australia or going to the police with what he knows and face the threat of deportation.
Danny has spent his time in Australia paying keen attention and now, in the single day recounted here, the city is sending him signals. Street signs, store windows, radio snippets and even his own phone send cryptic messages, singing an urban key.
Meanwhile he has to contend with the killer himself, verbally sparring back and forth over the phone. He offers up an easy out, speaking up has never led to anything good for Danny, a cigarette burn on his forearm a testament to his past inability to pay attention to the rules around him. Danny is, and has always been, a faker - a fake citizen in Australia even a fake vegan to his girlfriend. Staying quiet means staying safe.
An examination of illegals making their way in the world, hidden in plain sight - wrapped up in a tight little crime thriller.
January 9, 2020
Aravind Adiga is a name that should be better known. His novels offer up to the minute examinations of the current world view from the point of view of what he refers to as southern Asians, and in this case, the plight and moral dilemma of a young Sri Lankan Tamil expat trying to gain a visa in Australia. With all that is happening in the United States these days regarding potential immigrants who have something to contribute and being denied access or hunted down and deported, it is eyeopening to learn that Australia employs similar tactics.
Danny has been trying to subsist under the radar for almost four years now. After leaving the college that was a scam operation, thus invalidating his student status, he has been living in a stockroom of a grocery, paying usurous rent to the owner, and making a living as a trustworthy house cleaner. Always with an eye on his back, he juggles all aspects of his life trying so hard to fit in and be invisible at the same time. When one of his clients is murdered and he knows whodunnit, he faces a moral dilemma of whether or not to squeal and thus expose himself facing possible deportation. Danny's story spins out over the course of a single day with his history told via flashbacks. A welcome and informative addition to Mr. Adiga's body of work.
Danny has been trying to subsist under the radar for almost four years now. After leaving the college that was a scam operation, thus invalidating his student status, he has been living in a stockroom of a grocery, paying usurous rent to the owner, and making a living as a trustworthy house cleaner. Always with an eye on his back, he juggles all aspects of his life trying so hard to fit in and be invisible at the same time. When one of his clients is murdered and he knows whodunnit, he faces a moral dilemma of whether or not to squeal and thus expose himself facing possible deportation. Danny's story spins out over the course of a single day with his history told via flashbacks. A welcome and informative addition to Mr. Adiga's body of work.
March 10, 2020
This is a really hard one to rate because there were parts that really fascinated me, and parts that just jumbled together without making much sense to me. I even DNFd at one point, only to pick it back up again. I wanted to love this book based on the synopsis, but I’m afraid it just wasn’t for me.
*thank you to the publisher for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own
*thank you to the publisher for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own
March 4, 2020
Danny (Dhananjaya Rajaratnam) has been living as an illegal immigrant in Sydney for four years after arriving from Sri Lanka on an educational visa to study at what turned out to be a bogus college. He's managed to make himself nearly invisible on the streets of Sydney, dying the tips of his hair golden, smoothing out his Tamil accent and peppering his English with Aussie expressions. He has a girlfriend, a handful of friends who are also illegal immigrants and some regular work as a cash in hand cleaner. He lives in the storeroom on a convenience store in exchange for working in the store and giving the owner a third of what he owns cleaning. When one of his cleaning clients is murdered Danny suspects he knows who killed her but must decide whether to tell the police and risk deportation. This novel describes the course of a single day where Danny tosses up the pros and cons of going to the police.
Danny is a great character, intelligent, cheerful, hardworking and caring. Through him Adiga really helps us see what it is like to live in the shoes of an illegal immigrant, to always keep a low profile, put up with others treating you badly and be careful never to draw attention to yourself. It's very easy to feel sympathy for Danny who wants to do the right thing by his murdered client but doesn't want to be sent back to Sri Lanka where he was previously tortured by immigration officials and will have to face his family and the shame of returning empty handed. The prose is easy and flows freely through Danny's flashbacks to his life in Sri Lanka and his provoking and often humorous thoughts on Australia, Australians, racism and legal vs illegal immigrants. I was also very impressed with Adiga's knowledge of Sydney. I don't know how long he spent when he visited but he exhibits a superb knowledge of the city centre and inner city suburbs, as well as the suburban rail network.
With thanks to Pan Macmillan Au and Netgalley for providing a digital ARC to read
Danny is a great character, intelligent, cheerful, hardworking and caring. Through him Adiga really helps us see what it is like to live in the shoes of an illegal immigrant, to always keep a low profile, put up with others treating you badly and be careful never to draw attention to yourself. It's very easy to feel sympathy for Danny who wants to do the right thing by his murdered client but doesn't want to be sent back to Sri Lanka where he was previously tortured by immigration officials and will have to face his family and the shame of returning empty handed. The prose is easy and flows freely through Danny's flashbacks to his life in Sri Lanka and his provoking and often humorous thoughts on Australia, Australians, racism and legal vs illegal immigrants. I was also very impressed with Adiga's knowledge of Sydney. I don't know how long he spent when he visited but he exhibits a superb knowledge of the city centre and inner city suburbs, as well as the suburban rail network.
With thanks to Pan Macmillan Au and Netgalley for providing a digital ARC to read
February 11, 2020
Amnesty takes a very original take on the life of an "illegal". The narrative follows Danny, a young Sri Lankan who deliberately overstayed his visa and now resides in Sydney as invisibly as he can. He works as a cash in hand cleaner. One of his clients is murdered and he thinks he knows who is the murderer. His quandary is whether to talk to the police, a big no no for a non-person, or to live with his conscious.
His observations on Australians and racism, religion and the law is scarily accurate. His portrayal of life as an illegal is empathetic and believable. The book is full of witty observations, pointed barbs and sad truths. Its my highlight of 2020 reading so far.
His observations on Australians and racism, religion and the law is scarily accurate. His portrayal of life as an illegal is empathetic and believable. The book is full of witty observations, pointed barbs and sad truths. Its my highlight of 2020 reading so far.
April 25, 2020
A young Tamil immigrant, living illegally in Australia, dithers over a decision in this short novel by a writer who is capable of much more. I appreciated the look at Australian attitudes on immigration and racism, but the novel was repetitive and the protagonist wasn’t convincing or sympathetic.
July 21, 2021
Danny is a Tamil, living in Sydney, working as a cleaner but without citizenship or a valid visa. One of his clients is murdered and he believes by another of his clients, but if he tells anyone what he knows, he risks detention and deportation back to Sri Lanka.
A good premise on a very important topic. Mr Adiga's descriptions of Sydney's diverse population and of Sydney itself are spot on. But his style of writing is much too scattergun and all over the place to follow easily. I found I had had enough by half way, just too exhausting to read for me.
Miles Franklin nominee, but this did not win. I enjoyed White Tiger very much, not so here.
A good premise on a very important topic. Mr Adiga's descriptions of Sydney's diverse population and of Sydney itself are spot on. But his style of writing is much too scattergun and all over the place to follow easily. I found I had had enough by half way, just too exhausting to read for me.
Miles Franklin nominee, but this did not win. I enjoyed White Tiger very much, not so here.
April 7, 2020
This is overall a really good take on a very timely subject. Danny is an illegal immigrant from Sri Lanka living in Sydney, Australia. He came on a student visa to a somewhat suspect college. He now has passed the 28 day period following his schooling, which he never officially finished, and his student visa has run out. Through the help of another immigrant, he connects with an older Greek man and becomes a house cleaner with various clients, but he has to give half of his earnings to this Greek man.
The main issue here begins when one of Danny's clients has been murdered, and Danny thinks he knows who the murderer is. Morally he knows that he should give the police this information. However, he has a realistic fear of being deported if he does so. The book turns into a cat and mouse game between Danny and the suspected killer, with Danny going back a forth and doing his best to avoid deportation.
Although I generally enjoyed this timely novel, it did wear on me a bit as it evolved. The characters are a bit extreme (the murdered woman and her lover are called The King and Queen of the Nile) and they are compulsive gamblers. And the older Greek man is a bit absurd. It is obviously a satire, so the characters are a bit broad. There is a bit of Salman Rushdie in this author, a strong writer who may go a bit too far at times.
The main issue here begins when one of Danny's clients has been murdered, and Danny thinks he knows who the murderer is. Morally he knows that he should give the police this information. However, he has a realistic fear of being deported if he does so. The book turns into a cat and mouse game between Danny and the suspected killer, with Danny going back a forth and doing his best to avoid deportation.
Although I generally enjoyed this timely novel, it did wear on me a bit as it evolved. The characters are a bit extreme (the murdered woman and her lover are called The King and Queen of the Nile) and they are compulsive gamblers. And the older Greek man is a bit absurd. It is obviously a satire, so the characters are a bit broad. There is a bit of Salman Rushdie in this author, a strong writer who may go a bit too far at times.
June 6, 2021
In one of the book's more poignant recollections, an illegal immigrant about to be deported comes across a policeman and recognizes "the look in his eyes: the look of a people losing their grip on a continent".
Aravind Adiga's recent book is a coloured portrayal of life of migrants - legal and illegal - in Australia. Told from the point of view of Danny - Dhananjaya - a Srilankan who has overstayed his student visa and becomes a cleaner.
With a vegan Chinese girlfriend and conscious ways of not drawing attention (like not cracking knuckles or not eating while walking), we meet Danny trying to stay invisible to white and brown people. Except one of his clients gets murdered by another and he might have to decide if he should turn witness. In 24 hours, Danny's conscience weighs him in as the scheming Dr.Rajashekar, the potential murderer is threatening him with his secret.
The book is more of an inquiry into the Australian processes which are fraught with loopholes. It makes it a crime to employ a illegal migrant and even has a citizen arrest program. Hence the ones who are most watchful for the aliens are one with legal migrant status.
Much like his earlier books the societal observations are sharp and incisive. The book however becomes a rambling in a needless time bound structure. The characters are monochrome and the morality argument is aided in large parts by fear.
All in all a decent book.
June 24, 2021
2021 Miles Franklin Short List
4.5 stars
A really interesting book, set in Sydney, and I think Adiga has us pegged.
I found there were some similarities to the author's Booker winner, The White Tiger. This novel also features a man who's an under-dog, faced with a moral question, and we follow him right through the novel to find out what his decision will be.
The novel takes place in a time-stamped single day, with added flashbacks.
There is a bit of repetition in the text which adds a little something more to the confused feeling of the protagonist, but also felt a bit like padding and frustrated me a little.
But Adiga is an observant writer and I felt like he knew Sydney and the people of Sydney really well.
He also has many of the social issues of Australia really down pat. Particularly, the people who outstay their visas, the multi-cultural nature of Sydney, seedy Kings Cross and a number of other inner suburbs, not to mention the nature of the gambling addict and the infernal pokies.
It's going to be a strong contender for the 2021 Miles Franklin win.
4.5 stars
A really interesting book, set in Sydney, and I think Adiga has us pegged.
I found there were some similarities to the author's Booker winner, The White Tiger. This novel also features a man who's an under-dog, faced with a moral question, and we follow him right through the novel to find out what his decision will be.
The novel takes place in a time-stamped single day, with added flashbacks.
There is a bit of repetition in the text which adds a little something more to the confused feeling of the protagonist, but also felt a bit like padding and frustrated me a little.
But Adiga is an observant writer and I felt like he knew Sydney and the people of Sydney really well.
He also has many of the social issues of Australia really down pat. Particularly, the people who outstay their visas, the multi-cultural nature of Sydney, seedy Kings Cross and a number of other inner suburbs, not to mention the nature of the gambling addict and the infernal pokies.
It's going to be a strong contender for the 2021 Miles Franklin win.
December 16, 2019
“Easiest thing in the world, becoming invisible to white people who don’t see you anyway; but the hardest thing is becoming invisible to brown people, who will see you no matter what.”
Sri Lankan Dhananjaya Rajaratnum—aka Danny—arrived in Australia by plane with a visa stamped on his passport to attend a dodgy college. Rather than play by the unstated but understood rules, he allowed his student visa to expire, placing him in no-man’s land. Since leaving the school, he has successfully stayed beneath the radar, working as a housecleaner, getting expensive golden hair highlights to blend in, and keeping clear of the law. That is, until one of his Indian-born clients is murdered and he is pretty sure of who did it.
The murderer—her violent lover, nicknamed the Doctor— knows that Danny is on to him but he’s also pretty sure he has Danny in check: after all, he can make one phone call and have Danny deported. Danny is caught in a bind: if he tells the law what he knows about the murderer, he basically tells that law what he knows about himself.
In essence, what Mr. Adiga has created in this book is a “one day in the life of a migrant” tale, complete with Danny’s paranoia, moral dilemma, and aborted interactions with the police, and constant stressful cellphone communication with the Doctor. Mr. Adiga very much succeeds in creating the absurd and dehumanizing state in which illegal immigrants are forced to live: unable to engage fully in Australian life, constantly watching their backs, trying to keep as low a profile as possible even when the consequence is letting a murderer go scot-free.
As I discovered from his earlier books, particularly White Tiger and Last Man in the Tower, Aravind Adiga is a mesmerizing writer. Certainly the ambiance he creates with its fragmented thoughts and action represent an author who is confident in his craft. But at the end of the day, I ended up admiring Amnesty more than loving it.
Perhaps it’s because I connected more to Danny’s paranoia than I did to Danny the flesh-and-blood person. Or perhaps there is something in the style that distanced me from the emotional core of the story. But that’s just me. The story couldn’t be more timely and the author is certainly gifted. I gratefully thank Simon and Schuster for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Sri Lankan Dhananjaya Rajaratnum—aka Danny—arrived in Australia by plane with a visa stamped on his passport to attend a dodgy college. Rather than play by the unstated but understood rules, he allowed his student visa to expire, placing him in no-man’s land. Since leaving the school, he has successfully stayed beneath the radar, working as a housecleaner, getting expensive golden hair highlights to blend in, and keeping clear of the law. That is, until one of his Indian-born clients is murdered and he is pretty sure of who did it.
The murderer—her violent lover, nicknamed the Doctor— knows that Danny is on to him but he’s also pretty sure he has Danny in check: after all, he can make one phone call and have Danny deported. Danny is caught in a bind: if he tells the law what he knows about the murderer, he basically tells that law what he knows about himself.
In essence, what Mr. Adiga has created in this book is a “one day in the life of a migrant” tale, complete with Danny’s paranoia, moral dilemma, and aborted interactions with the police, and constant stressful cellphone communication with the Doctor. Mr. Adiga very much succeeds in creating the absurd and dehumanizing state in which illegal immigrants are forced to live: unable to engage fully in Australian life, constantly watching their backs, trying to keep as low a profile as possible even when the consequence is letting a murderer go scot-free.
As I discovered from his earlier books, particularly White Tiger and Last Man in the Tower, Aravind Adiga is a mesmerizing writer. Certainly the ambiance he creates with its fragmented thoughts and action represent an author who is confident in his craft. But at the end of the day, I ended up admiring Amnesty more than loving it.
Perhaps it’s because I connected more to Danny’s paranoia than I did to Danny the flesh-and-blood person. Or perhaps there is something in the style that distanced me from the emotional core of the story. But that’s just me. The story couldn’t be more timely and the author is certainly gifted. I gratefully thank Simon and Schuster for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
July 12, 2020
What a chore this book was! I stuck with it though for a very specific reason, that I will get to in a bit.
First of all, it is remarkable for how badly it has been written. There were parts of this book that could not have been more unreadable if they were illegible or if Adiga had started to write in a strange, foreign language mid-sentence.
The core problem at the heart of Amnesty is this: the narrative was - at best - a short story. A crime, a power equation skewed towards the perpetrator and against the (for want of a better word) witness; a difficult decision and its consequences.
Instead, this slog of a narrative stretches out like some dreadful chewing gum gone sentient mid-chew - now making sluggish, awful attempts at strangling the mouth that feeds on it.
There is no good reason for this story to take 277 pages and run through the course of an entire day other than the fact that Adiga desperately wanted to wring a novel length book out of a short story.
The protagonist Dhananjay aka Danny, is a Sri Lankan Tamil, an illegal immigrant in Australia eking out a living as a housecleaner, certain that he will be caught and deported someday.
On hearing about the murder of one of his more enigmatic clients, Danny reaches out to her lover. It gradually (I honestly cannot overstate the glacial slowness with which this happens) dawns on him that the lover is the perpetrator.
Danny does not come across as a particularly sympathetic character. The white citizenry of Australia are almost universally portrayed as some hybrid of adversarial / exploitative / swinish. Adiga seems most sympathetic to 'Doctor' Prakash, the roguish antagonist who takes a particular delight in tormenting the dim-witted Danny.
A novel like this should ideally render its location - Sydney - as a living, breathing entity, but that would require far more skill than the author possesses. Instead, he throws in relentless topographic detail and calls it a day.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the book though - and one of the main reasons I stuck with it - is this bit from the acknowledgement section:
In Kuala Lumpur and Penang; I am grateful to all the people who told me their stories as illegal overseas farm workers in Australia. I hope each of them has a chance to return legally
This statement would have been merely facile under ordinary circumstances. But coming as it does from a dyed-in-the-wool regionalist bigot in the Indian context, like Adiga, it is laughable.
Here is what he had to say in a piece written about his state - a state known for its regionalist tendencies and attacks on among others, people from the North and North East of India - legal immigrants under Indian law.
Culture, in the south of India, has always been a bulwark against money. Sadly, just when he needs it most a defence, the Kannadiga (a native of Adiga's home state Karnataka) sees his language and culture being eroded everywhere. I encounter this problem every day in Bangalore where people routinely speak to me in Hindi. As a matter of principle, I insist on replying in Kannada, but the Kannadiga's self esteem has dipped so low, that many will talk only in Hindi to me. Our sense of who we are has unraveled. There is money, but there is no pride in Karnataka any longer. (from Kannadigas, Stand Up For Karnataka published in the Times of India)
Which perhaps explains why Adiga's sympathies seem to lie with a sadistic murderous bully. It is driven by a coward's fantasy of power - being the 'intellectual heft' behind a bigoted, exclusionary argument expressed on the street via a fist to the face of an 'outsider'.
It is also unclear why Adiga who sets such a high store by "culture" and "tradition", would deny other countries and people pride in their culture, tradition and way of life. And why he hypocritically wishes a "legal return" for people he would almost certainly despise if they, by chance, happened to make it to his own home state. Legally.
Being boring or incompetent at writing is, perhaps, a forgivable sin. Being a duplicitous hypocritical bore, far, far less so. Having said that, I would have rated the book a zero if possible - you don't need to hate Adiga's politics to do that; slogging through this book is quite enough.
First of all, it is remarkable for how badly it has been written. There were parts of this book that could not have been more unreadable if they were illegible or if Adiga had started to write in a strange, foreign language mid-sentence.
The core problem at the heart of Amnesty is this: the narrative was - at best - a short story. A crime, a power equation skewed towards the perpetrator and against the (for want of a better word) witness; a difficult decision and its consequences.
Instead, this slog of a narrative stretches out like some dreadful chewing gum gone sentient mid-chew - now making sluggish, awful attempts at strangling the mouth that feeds on it.
There is no good reason for this story to take 277 pages and run through the course of an entire day other than the fact that Adiga desperately wanted to wring a novel length book out of a short story.
The protagonist Dhananjay aka Danny, is a Sri Lankan Tamil, an illegal immigrant in Australia eking out a living as a housecleaner, certain that he will be caught and deported someday.
On hearing about the murder of one of his more enigmatic clients, Danny reaches out to her lover. It gradually (I honestly cannot overstate the glacial slowness with which this happens) dawns on him that the lover is the perpetrator.
Danny does not come across as a particularly sympathetic character. The white citizenry of Australia are almost universally portrayed as some hybrid of adversarial / exploitative / swinish. Adiga seems most sympathetic to 'Doctor' Prakash, the roguish antagonist who takes a particular delight in tormenting the dim-witted Danny.
A novel like this should ideally render its location - Sydney - as a living, breathing entity, but that would require far more skill than the author possesses. Instead, he throws in relentless topographic detail and calls it a day.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the book though - and one of the main reasons I stuck with it - is this bit from the acknowledgement section:
In Kuala Lumpur and Penang; I am grateful to all the people who told me their stories as illegal overseas farm workers in Australia. I hope each of them has a chance to return legally
This statement would have been merely facile under ordinary circumstances. But coming as it does from a dyed-in-the-wool regionalist bigot in the Indian context, like Adiga, it is laughable.
Here is what he had to say in a piece written about his state - a state known for its regionalist tendencies and attacks on among others, people from the North and North East of India - legal immigrants under Indian law.
Culture, in the south of India, has always been a bulwark against money. Sadly, just when he needs it most a defence, the Kannadiga (a native of Adiga's home state Karnataka) sees his language and culture being eroded everywhere. I encounter this problem every day in Bangalore where people routinely speak to me in Hindi. As a matter of principle, I insist on replying in Kannada, but the Kannadiga's self esteem has dipped so low, that many will talk only in Hindi to me. Our sense of who we are has unraveled. There is money, but there is no pride in Karnataka any longer. (from Kannadigas, Stand Up For Karnataka published in the Times of India)
Which perhaps explains why Adiga's sympathies seem to lie with a sadistic murderous bully. It is driven by a coward's fantasy of power - being the 'intellectual heft' behind a bigoted, exclusionary argument expressed on the street via a fist to the face of an 'outsider'.
It is also unclear why Adiga who sets such a high store by "culture" and "tradition", would deny other countries and people pride in their culture, tradition and way of life. And why he hypocritically wishes a "legal return" for people he would almost certainly despise if they, by chance, happened to make it to his own home state. Legally.
Being boring or incompetent at writing is, perhaps, a forgivable sin. Being a duplicitous hypocritical bore, far, far less so. Having said that, I would have rated the book a zero if possible - you don't need to hate Adiga's politics to do that; slogging through this book is quite enough.
December 5, 2019
For international reading purposes this was ideal. A book by an Indian author, set in Australia with a plot revolving around a Sri Lankan immigrant. Plus I’m always interested in what sort of authors win Booker Prize and this one did, albeit for previous work. Amnesty is a book that took 5 years to complete and its deceptively slim volume conceals a very serious meditation on the subject of immigration and social responsibilities. It is, in general, a fascinating question…What does a society owe a person? What does a person owe their society? What is the set of obligations that weaves the fabric of a cohesive social construct? But here it’s made all the more complicated because the protagonist is in the country illegally, a persona non grata, someone whom Australian government declared unwanted, denied legal protection and is therefore existing on the very fringes of society (cash jobs, sketchy living accommodations, etc.) all while trying desperately to fit in. In my opinion the author did a terrific job of representing this way of life and the dehumanizing effects of it, the daily anxiety, the myriad of small and not so small indignities, the constant fear, the lack of security and safety nets and so on. The scams meant to take advantage of those desperate to leave their own country to try to improve their circumstances, it’s how our protagonist, Danny, eventually ends up working at a cleaner instead of getting and using a college education. And then there’s the moral dilemma that this novel is built on…one day Danny becomes aware of a murder of one of his clients and realizes that another client of his might have had something to do with it. These are the people he was fairly close to as far as employer/employee relationships go, so it puts him in an awkward, terrible really, position. To tell the truth would mean not only to turn in someone he knows, but also to risk deportation. And so Danny’s day (the entire novel takes place mostly in one day, outside of flashbacks, backstories, etc.) becomes an elaborate game of the…whatever Australian predator/prey animal analog might be…where the roles are constantly switching as does the power. Doing the right thing is proving to be very complicated, even for a man who knows exactly what the right thing is. It’s one of those life changing character defining moments in a person’s life. The arm on the cover isn’t waving, it’s reaching out to grab a lifeline. And if I wanted to go further with the cover metaphors, which I’m not sure I do, the colored rings are meant to represent the multiethnic society that Danny is so desperate to really belong to…but no, that’s just…enough of interpreting the cover design. Suffice it to say the story is important, timely and interesting, although I somehow didn’t find it as compelling as it obviously was meant to be. The writing was very good, though not quite for me, so it ended up being the sort of book I intellectually appreciated instead of emotionally engaging with it. Something about the writing and I can’t quite put a finger on what it was. The ending might have had something to do with it. Or maybe the certain level of frustration with the main interaction’s dynamics. But at any rate, objectively, this was a pretty good and certainly worthy read. Thanks Netgalley.
May 11, 2021
Amnesty has the touch of The White Tiger which was the book that propelled Aravind Adiga to fame. It explores the darkness in our character, slowly and gradually as the book progresses from an optimistic Sri Lankan living illegally in Australia to a man filled with contradictions and despair who is caught up in a murder. The author keeps us guessing as to the next step the protagonist "Danny" will take, while we also gradually learn more about him and how his life has unfolded over the years. It may not be the book to read if you want to spend a pleasant weekend in blissful happiness, but it would be the one to pick up when you want to learn a lesson or two about life.
October 21, 2025
5 / Oh my goodness, this was so good, it deserves all the stars. A heartbreaking, heartwarming story of a rose between the thorns, Danny’s invisible world is thrown into chaos over a few short days.
Radha from number 5 has been found murdered and Danny may know the killer, taunting phone calls and threats ensue. The turmoil Danny feels about going to the police is palpable and this has been written to keep you on a knife edge. The writing style, even down to the vacuum noises to me was perfect.
Narrated brilliantly by Vikas Adam (in my opinion an Audie Award winning performance) is definitely the way to read it.
I think Danny’s story will stay with me for a long time. From his time in Dubai to his strife on return to Sri Lanka. His determination to not be cheated anymore, anywhere. To his learning along the way not to fall for just anything and his ability to keep going and try to do the right thing, because there would surely be cold milk in Villawood.
Below are a few of my favourites
“Easiest thing in the world, becoming invisible to white people, who don’t see you anyway; but the hardest thing is becoming invisible to brown people, who will see you no matter what”
“What is the point of being young unless you lived young?”
“The subject of wonder, this incorruptible thing, the blondest animal in Australia, the rule of law”
“When you have two lives, you simply double the number of places you want to escape from.”
“Because individually, no one there ever seems bad whether Tamil or Sinhala or Muslim. But it does exist, evil. A man puts on the uniform and becomes the uniform.”
“This person too, thought Danny, who will in a minute start talking and acting like a figure out of a tv cartoon bullying and shoving people around. At his place in the order of things. The thorns are there to protect the roses.”
5 ⭐️ Audiobook read by Vikas Adam
Radha from number 5 has been found murdered and Danny may know the killer, taunting phone calls and threats ensue. The turmoil Danny feels about going to the police is palpable and this has been written to keep you on a knife edge. The writing style, even down to the vacuum noises to me was perfect.
Narrated brilliantly by Vikas Adam (in my opinion an Audie Award winning performance) is definitely the way to read it.
I think Danny’s story will stay with me for a long time. From his time in Dubai to his strife on return to Sri Lanka. His determination to not be cheated anymore, anywhere. To his learning along the way not to fall for just anything and his ability to keep going and try to do the right thing, because there would surely be cold milk in Villawood.
Below are a few of my favourites
“Easiest thing in the world, becoming invisible to white people, who don’t see you anyway; but the hardest thing is becoming invisible to brown people, who will see you no matter what”
“What is the point of being young unless you lived young?”
“The subject of wonder, this incorruptible thing, the blondest animal in Australia, the rule of law”
“When you have two lives, you simply double the number of places you want to escape from.”
“Because individually, no one there ever seems bad whether Tamil or Sinhala or Muslim. But it does exist, evil. A man puts on the uniform and becomes the uniform.”
“This person too, thought Danny, who will in a minute start talking and acting like a figure out of a tv cartoon bullying and shoving people around. At his place in the order of things. The thorns are there to protect the roses.”
5 ⭐️ Audiobook read by Vikas Adam
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