Manil Suri
The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri - paperback

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

— Time
A 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)

LONG LIST: Booker Prize (UK), 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

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  • “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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