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Books by Manil Suri
From the bustling streets of Mumbai to the edges of the universe.
A Room in Bombay
A MemoirIndian American author Manil Suri grew up in a large crumbling apartment in Bombay (now Mumbai) which his parents, who were Hindu, shared with three Muslim families. Their single room, at times a refuge from the religious and territorial tensions pervading the apartment, was also a prison that held them captive—his parents stuck in an unhappy marriage, the author unable to explore the dawning realization he might be gay. At age 20, Suri managed to break free and come to the US, where he finally found the freedom to embrace his sexuality and find a life partner. But the room, which still held his parents hostage, kept wrenching him back to Bombay.
The Big Bang of Numbers
How to Build the Universe Using Only Math
"Infinitely fascinating....succeeds in making slippery ideas easy to grasp — including the way the vast complexity that springs from simple mathematical rules can explain intelligence and life itself."
Our universe has multiple origin stories, from religious creation myths to the Big Bang of scientists. But if we leave those behind and start from nothing — no matter, no cosmos, not even empty space — could we create a universe using only math? With irreverent humor and boundless creativity, Manil Suri invites us to try.
The India Trilogy
The City of Devi
"Suri’s prose is reason enough to pick up the book, but what ultimately makes the reader turn the pages is the intertwined destinies of the three characters."
A dazzling, multilayered novel that not only encompasses a searing love story but, with its epic reach, encapsulates the fate of the entire world.
The Age of Shiva
"A stunning novel, proof that Manil Suri is a major storyteller of heart and intelligence."
The Age of Shiva is at once a powerful story of a country in turmoil and an "unflinchingly honest" portrait of maternal love—"intricately interwoven with the ancient rites and myths" (Booklist) crucial to India's history. Meera, the narrator, is seventeen years old when she catches her first glimpse of Dev, performing a song so infused with passion that it arouses in her the first flush of erotic longing. She wonders if she can steal him away from Roopa, her older, more beautiful sister, who has brought her along to see him.
The Death of Vishnu
"Enchanting…Suri’s novel achieves an eerie and memorable transcendence."
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.