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A Suitable Boy

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What to expect

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER AND MODERN CLASSIC



'A phenomenon, a prodigy, a marvel' Evening Standard
'You should make time for it. It will keep you company for the rest of your life' The Times
'Vast . . . amiably peopled . . . a long sweet, sleepless pilgrimage to life' Guardian

ONE OF THE BBC'S 100 NOVELS THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD



A modern classic, this epic tale of families, romance and political intrigue, set in India, never loses its power to delight and enchant readers.

At its core, A Suitable Boy is a love story: the tale of Lata - and her mother's - attempts to find her a suitable husband, through love or through exacting maternal appraisal. At the same time, it is the story of India, newly independent and struggling through a time of crisis as a sixth of the world's population faces its first great general election and the chance to map its own destiny.

Shortlisted for the Irish Times International Fiction Prize


Winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize
Winner of the WHSmith Literary Award

'Seth is the best writer of his generation' The Times

'Fiction on a grand scale. By the time you reach the last page you will have absorbed a splendid story, full of tangle and perfume of India' Sunday Telegraph

'The greatness of the novel, its unassailable truthfulness, owes less to research than to imagination, an instinctive knowledge of the human heart' Observer

Readers love this modern classic:



'Vikram Seth is a genius - and a poet too . . . once the reader begins to read it is impossible to put down' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'The longest book you've ever read. And it's not long enough' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'One of the greatest novels ever written and one of the best books I have ever read' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'A book that has reduced me to quiet tears on trains and planes, that I have laughed at and that has been my companion for some months' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Critics Review

The best writer of his generation
The Times
This novel, so vast and so amiably peopled, is a long, sweet, sleepless pilgrimage to life . . . His novel deserves thousands of long marriages and suitable readers
Guardian
No one, surely, could wish this novel shorter . . . the greatness of the novel, its unassailable truthfulness, owes less to research than to imagination, an instinctive knowledge of the human heart
Observer
Not merely one of the longest novels in English; it may also prove to be the most fecund as well as the most prodigious work of the latter half of [the twentieth] century
The Times
A quietly monumental novel . . . [Seth] has given that unlikeliest of hybrids, a modest tour de force
TLS
An immensely enjoyable novel which describes with unhurried pace the panorama of India . . . Everything appears familiar to us, yet in fact it is newly minted by a master artist
Hindustan Times
Conceived on a grand scale of the great 19th century novels - War and Peace, Middlemarch - A Suitable Boy grows to match them in breadth and depth . . . [A] massive and magnificent book
Sunday Times
A phenomenon, a prodigy, a marvel of 19th century storytelling in the language of today . . . It is hard to believe that Seth is only one man. He writes with the omniscience and authority of a large, orderly committee of experts on Indian politics, law, medicine, crowd psychology, urban and rural social customs, dress, cuisine, horticulture, funerary rites, cricket and even the technicalities of shoe manufacture
Evening Standard
Author Vikram Seth
Narrator Sagar Arya
Duration 68 hours and 44 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781474621830
Format Audiobook
Publisher Orion
Genre Modern and contemporary fiction
Availability AU, GB, IE

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