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Book at Bedtime

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Readings from modern classics, new works by leading writers and world literature

Readings from modern classics, new works by leading writers and literature from around the world

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Book at Bedtime: The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Indira Varma

Arundhati Roy

Richard Hamilton

Elizabeth Allard

Book at Bedtime: The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: Episode 1: The House of Dreams

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Episode 1

Episode 1: The House of Dreams

The House of Dreams

BBC Radio 4 - Book at Bedtime, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, The House of Dreams

In Arundhati Roy's novel, Aftab finds a place to belong in the House of Dreams.

In Arundhati Roy's novel, Aftab finds a place to belong in the House of Dreams. Read by Indira Varma.

In Arundhati Roy's hotly anticipated new novel Aftab finds a place to belong in the House of Dreams. The reader is Indira Varma

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is Arundhati Roy's first novel since her celebrated debut The God of Small Things which won the Booker Prize in 1997. Her hotly anticipated new novel takes us on a mesmerising journey from Old Delhi to Kashmir and back. The lives of a cast of vivid characters are intimately interwoven. Anjum unrolls a threadbare Persian carpet in a city graveyard that she calls home, and where she meets an incorrigible young man who goes by the moniker of Saddam Hussain. Then there is the unforgettable Tilo and the three men who loved her especially, Musa whose fate is heartbreakingly entwined with hers. And also the two Miss Jebeens: the first born in Srinagar and buried, aged four, in its overcrowded Martyrs' Graveyard; the second found at midnight, in a crib of litter, on the concrete pavement of New Delhi. The corrupting nature of power is brought into stark relief as Arundhati Roy's characters endure through the darkest of times and still manage to find hope and most of all love. 

For more on the acclaimed writer and to download all fifteen episodes visit the Radio 4 website.


Indira Varma is well know to television, radio and theatre audiences. She has appeared in a number of television series including, Game of Thrones (as Ellaria Sand), and Paranoid, as DS Nina Suresh. She narrates Radio 4's landmark series, Tommies. Her many theatre appearances include Treatment at the Almeida Theatre, London.

Emilio Doorgasingh reads later episodes. He has most recently been on stage in The Kite Runner, and also Dara.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard.

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By Arundhati Roy. A mesmerising journey from Old Delhi to Kashmir.

By Arundhati Roy. A mesmerising journey from Old Delhi to Kashmir and back in which the lives of a cast of vivid characters are intimately interwoven. Abridged by Richard Hamilton.

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