Amnesty: A Novel

Amnesty is an in-depth look at the world from an illegal immigrant’s perspective that leaves a ringing, lasting impression. For you if: You don’t mind books that ask a little extra from you because they are more literary / cerebral. FULL REVIEW: "Nothing is simple for a man like this one. Not even being helpless. Or harmless. Life is a battle, and though unevenly so, everyone is armed." Amnesty was a really unique book, at least for me, and so it also moved me in a unique way. Told over the course of one single day, it follows an illegal immigrant living in Sydney, Australia, named Danny. Danny has been in Sydney for four years. He originally travelled there on a student visa and then applied for asylum, but was denied. So he stayed illegally. Now he has a girlfriend he loves and a steady stream of clients whose houses he cleans, so life is pretty good. But then one of them is murdered, and Danny thinks another one of his clients may have killed her. In fact, Danny is probably the only person who knows about the connection between them. But if he tells the police, he’ll be deported. He spends the day agonizing over the decision, which is not helped by the fact that the potential killer keeps calling him and harassing him. I don’t know if I’ve ever read a book told in one day before. At certain times, it made me feel a little impatient for the plot to move along. But at other times, I was hit by the way the author could slow so far down and use an exacting level of detail to leave an impression. And the spiraling nature of Danny’s internal struggle hammered home the trauma he’d lived and was currently living. This book lost me sometimes. It wavered between first person and third person and here and there and then and now, all in a way that was occasionally hard to follow. But I always found my way back. The result is a book that feels very literary and cerebral (I’m not surprised to see that Adiga previously won the Booker Prize, as nominated books tend to feel that way). So it takes a little more work, but it turned out to be worth it to me in the end. It’s not too hard to find stories about illegal immigrants during their journey, or right after. I have read far fewer stories about their daily lives once they arrive. The way they are hunted, haunted, afraid, empowered and disempowered, surrounded by both comrades and foes. This book painted a portrait of an exhausting life that is still yet worth living. And for that, I’m grateful. TRIGGER WARNINGS Violence / murder Racism and racial slurs Islamophobia

yes, it's literary fiction. but it is written with careful attention to plot — such that it reads like a thriller. you'll have trouble putting it down. propulsive, clever, resonant, well-researched. effectively captures the moral complexities of living on the fringes of a "first world" society. set in australia, *amnesty* does well pointing out the hypocrisies and contradictions of that country, esp when it comes to immigration. this is a timely, frenetic, tightly-crafted novel and i recommend it highly!

one of my chief complaints about nearly all novels, bestsellers i come across is that the 'imagery' is overdone. every little twitch of the characters, every little sway of the breeze, the color of the chair they might be sitting on is commented on. plus there is the attempt at poetic metaphors - Salman Rushdie claiming the clock hands coming together to usher in Midnight's Children, for example that caused us to endure a flood of 'magical realism' since - in Adiga's repeated allusions to mermaids in a lagoon in Batticalao that he can listen to if he put his reed into the water - the reader finds it hard to believe that anyone will leave such an idyllic beautiful place in Sri Lanka to clean homes as an illegal in what seems like the slums of Sydney. This kind of stream of consciouness writing seems all the voge now we have Knausgaard etc. who seem to fill pages of their memoirs , describing things that simply happen to them, and we are supposed to read and enjoy it at all simply because there is nothing better to do?! - no, it is less work to binge watch something on Netflix instead. Now I liked Aravind Adiga's White Tiger because of its somewhat realistic portrayal of an anti-hero in India - there are millions like him - and his prose is pretty good, but in Amnesty he takes on another topical issue - migration (illegal, obviously) and its effects on lives - and I dont know that I learned anything new, or got any unique perspective - yes, we already know that migrants are mostly decent human beings, even if the mostly decent countries they migrate to dont necessarily treat them that way. What I look for in a novel is a plot - a dramatic drive that keeps the story clipping along, with the moral or social observations only scenes by the side - I dont know that I got that out of Amnesty. I dont regret reading through it, but it did not leave me with any sense of realization, or closure of story that I have sought, and found with some of my favorites.

This was a very painful novel to read. The protagonist, an illegal alien in Australia, has knowledge (or thinks he does) of a murder. The book takes place in one day in his life, minute by minute and the things he does, much because he is illegal are painful. The scarry movie part is hard, he converses with the murderer and even goes to see him; why I don't know. We learn of the horrific life of illegal immigrants, worldwide. Even the protagonist's (Danny) relationship with is father is painful. Not a happy book to read.

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.

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".

What does it mean live in a world where not being seen is the only thing that will sustain you when being seen is the only thing that can keep your spirit alive? Danny is struggling with just this question as an illegal immigrant in Aravind Adiga’s latest novel, Amnesty. Danny is a cleaner, cleaning away the secrets and mysteries of the privileged, white Aussies who refuse to do it for themselves. Those same people who see him only as the color of his skin or the thickness of his accent. Those people who see him as the same brown person from across the street or from that south east Asian restaurant. Danny spends his days both hiding from and trying to be seen by these people. And then he meets Radha, a brown woman whose luxurious home he’s hired to clean. A woman who at first seems to genuinely care for him, who offers to help him, but who ends up being as corrupted and swallowed by the white-washed world she lives in, forced to take on a certain persona to protect herself from further degradation because of the color of her skin. She treats him like a pet, taking him to gamble and drink with her and her secret lover Prakash. Danny has left that life behind though, refusing to clean for Radha and her lover for months. Until the morning he’s cleaning a neighbor’s home and finds that Radha has been murdered. Danny tries to convince himself that Radha’s murder was random, an act of violence committed by any person who might have had nothing against her. But he knows this isn’t true. He knows Prakash had something to do with it. He knows Prakash has murdered her. But what can he do? He, an invisible, illegal immigrant? Someone no one sees? Someone who spends his life trying to be invisible and slowly dying because of it? Danny struggles with these fundamental moral questions as he weighs what it means to be human, to be a human who has suffered, to be a human has an obligation to those around him even if they don’t look like him or want him. FTC Disclaimer: This book was given to me in return for a fair and honest review of the text.

Amnesty tells the story of a young Sri Lankan immigrant (illegal) in Australia named Danny (Dhananjaya, I believe). All is going well - or about as well as it CAN go for illegal immigrants anywhere - when Danny learns of a murder. The victim is an old acquaintance, and Danny may just know who did it. But coming forward before the law with information will also reveal Danny's illegal status...and could cost him his ability to stay in Australia. Amnesty is a tightly plotted page-turner, taking place over the course of just one day. The story is written intimately from Danny's perspective - his thoughts are scattered and nervous, and we're along for the ride. Peppered throughout are deep and insightful comments, thoughts, anecdotes and memories about Sri Lankan and western culture, immigration policy, history, and truth. It's certainly thought-provoking, to say the least. Danny is a great character, and he's fully fleshed out and realized on the page. There's also some moments of great humor. My ONLY complaint with the book - and I'm hesitant to even say this - is that it doesn't offer much opinion or suggestion about how to better the plight of immigrants across the world. It certainly brings up valid criticisms of the "system" (and it criticizes Danny's home county, too, and others -- this is NOT a book with a political agenda, per se) but it falls short of drawing a formal conclusion, or offering a better path forward. But that's all really besides the point. This isn't really a story ABOUT immigration so much as it is a much more personal story - about a person, yes, but also about people in general. I loved this book!