Main content

Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy, Booker Prize-winning writer, is interviewed by Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the writer, Arundhati Roy. She won the Booker Prize for her first novel, The God Of Small Things, which has been translated into 40 languages and became the best-selling book ever by a non-expatriate Indian. After a gap of 20 years, her second novel will be published in June.

Brought up in Kerala, her Syrian Christian mother left her marriage when her children were young and set up a small school where Arundhati and her brother were educated. Raised to be independent, aged 16, Arundhati left home to study architecture in Delhi before being introduced to the film world by her second husband. Since the publication of The God of Small Things in 1997, she has continued to write non-fiction, using her influence her to focus on tackling injustice. She has campaigned against India's nuclear programme, dam-building, globalisation, religious intolerance and the inequality of Indian society.

Producer: Cathy Drysdale.

Available now

36 minutes

Last on

Fri 31 Mar 2017 09:00
麻豆官网首页入口 Radio 4

More episodes

Previous

Amanda Levete

Next

Ed Sheeran

See all episodes from Desert Island Discs

Clip

Music Played

  • The Beatles

    While My Guitar Gently Weeps

    • The Beatles (The White Album).
    • Apple.

  • Martin Taylor鈥檚 Spirit of Django

    Hi Lily, Hi Lo

    • Years Apart.
    • Linn Records.

  • Paul Robeson

    Ol聮 Man River

    • Ol聮 Man River.
    • Prestige.

  • The Rolling Stones

    Ruby Tuesday

    • Flowers.
    • Universal.

  • Janis Joplin

    Summertime

    • Janis Joplin: Greatest Hits.
    • Sony.

  • Bhungar Khan

    Jhatke Aaayo Chomasho

  • CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE

    • Bhimsen Joshi

      Raga Chhaya-Chhaya Malhar

      • Concert Recording Of The 1960's Volume 3.
      • Living Media India, Ltd.

  • Leonard Cohen

    Winter Lady

    • Songs of Leonard Cohen.
    • Columbia.

  • BOOK CHOICE

    Hope Against Hope by Nadezhda Mandelstam

  • LUXURY ITEM

    A Ratol Mango Tree

Credits

Presenter Kirsty Young
Interviewed Guest Arundhati Roy
Producer Cathy Drysdale

Broadcasts

  • Sun 26 Mar 2017 11:15
    麻豆官网首页入口 Radio 4
  • Fri 31 Mar 2017 09:00
    麻豆官网首页入口 Radio 4

Featured in...

The Desert Island Discs podcast

The Desert Island Discs podcast

Subscribe or download individual episodes.

Listen to over 2,000 programmes

Click above to browse castaways, from 1942 to today.

Articles

Read the surprising things we've learned about some stand-out castaways.

Podcast