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The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri - paperback

"Enchanting…Suri’s novel achieves an eerie and memorable transcendence."

— Time
National Bestseller
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The Death of Vishnu

A Novel

In Manil Suri’s debut novel, Vishnu, the odd-job man, lies dying on the staircase of an apartment building while around him unfold the lives of its inhabitants: warring housewives, lovesick teenagers, a grieving widower. In a fevered state, Vishnu looks back on his love affair with the seductive Padmini and wonders if he might actually be the god Vishnu, guardian of the entire universe.

Awards

WINNER: Barnes & Noble Discover Prize, Pen-Bingham Award, McKittrick Prize (UK), Ralph Heyne Corrine Buchpreis (Germany)

SHORT LIST: Pen-Faulkner award, Kiriyama prize, Pen-Hemingway award, L.A. Times Art Seidenbaum award, Torgi Literary award (Canada) and W.H. Smith First Novel award (UK)

Longlisted, Booker Prize, IMPAC Award (Ireland)

New York Times Notable Book

The Death of Vishnu UK cover

UK Cover

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Praise for The Death of Vishnu

Slideshow Items

  • “A deft and confident first novel … the finely burnished plots, the oblique irony and understated prose; above all, the sense of equipoise. All this The Death of Vishnu has, and more.”

    — New York Times Book Review, front-page review

  • “A remarkable literary debut [that] reads like the work of a highly skilled and experienced practitioner of the writer’s craft.”

    — Los Angeles Times Book Review

  • “Vibrantly alive, beautifully written, and full of wonderfully rich and deeply human characters.”

    — Michael Cunningham

  • “Enchanting…Masterfully created…No telling detail or private vanity escapes the author’s comic yet infinitely compassionate scrutiny.”

    — Boston Globe

  • “Vivid and engrossing…A work of fiction that seems not only universal but absolutely cosmic.”

    — Francine Prose , Elle

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