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A publisher, who is at war with his industry and himself, embarks on a radical experiment in his own life and the lives of those connected to him; an academic exchanges one story for another after an accident brings a stranger into her life; and a family in rural India have their lives destroyed by a gift.
These three ingeniously linked but distinct narratives, each of which has devastating unintended consequences, form a breathtaking exploration of freedom, responsibility, and ethics. What happens when market values replace other notions of value and meaning? How do the choices we make affect our work, our relationships, and our place in the world? Neel Mukherjee's new novel exposes the myths of individual choice, and confronts our fundamental assumptions about economics, race, appropriation, and the tangled ethics of contemporary life.
Choice is a scathing, compassionate quarrel with the world, a masterful inquiry into how we should live our lives, and how we should tell them.
'A brilliant, bleak moral maze of a novel' Guardian
'Dazzling... by turns comic, lyrical and heartbreaking' Monica Ali
'Profound and beautiful' Paul Murray, author of The Bee Sting
'A vital, haunting, devastating read' Sarah Waters
'A magnificent achievement' Namwali Serpell
'A superb writer... his greatest work yet' Michelle de Kretser
About the author
Neel Mukherjee won the Writers Guild of Great Britain Award for best fiction in 2010 for his debut novel A Life Apart. His second novel, The Lives of Others, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Costa Novel Award, and won the Encore Award. His most recent novel, A State of Freedom, was a New York Times '100 Notable Books of the Year' and heralded as 'Stunning ... a marvel of a book, shocking and beautiful, and it proves that Mukherjee is one of the most original and talented authors working today' (NPR).
Summary
'A brilliant, bleak moral maze of a novel' Guardian
'Dazzling... by turns comic, lyrical and heartbreaking' Monica Ali
'Profound and beautiful' Paul Murray, author of The Bee Sting
'A vital, haunting, devastating read' Sarah Waters
A publisher, who is at war with his industry and himself, embarks on a radical experiment in his own life and the lives of those connected to him; an academic exchanges one story for another after an accident brings a stranger into her life; and a family in rural India have their lives destroyed by a gift.
These three ingeniously linked but distinct narratives, each of which has devastating unintended consequences, form a breathtaking exploration of freedom, responsibility, and ethics. What happens when market values replace other notions of value and meaning? How do the choices we make affect our work, our relationships, and our place in the world? Neel Mukherjee's new novel exposes the myths of individual choice, and confronts our fundamental assumptions about economics, race, appropriation, and the tangled ethics of contemporary life.
Choice is a scathing, compassionate quarrel with the world, a masterful inquiry into how we should live our lives, and how we should tell them.
'A magnificent achievement' Namwali Serpell
'A superb writer... his greatest work yet' Michelle de Kretser
Foreword
From Booker-shortlisted author Neel Mukherjee, a devastating new novel that exposes the myths of individual choice. How have we come to live this way? At what cost? Who pays the price?
