Description
"Danny - formerly Dhananjaya Rajaratnam - is an illegal immigrant in Sydney, Australia, denied refugee status after he fled from Sri Lanka. Working as a cleaner, living out of a grocery storeroom, for three years he�s been trying to create a new identity for himself. And now, with his beloved vegan girlfriend, Sonja, with his hidden accent and highlights in his hair, he is as close as he has ever come to living a normal life. But then one morning, Danny learns a female client of his has been murdered. The deed was done with a knife, at a creek he�d been to with her before; and a jacket was left at the scene, which he believes belongs to another of his clients - a doctor with whom Danny knows the woman was having an affair. Suddenly Danny is confronted with a choice: Come forward with his knowledge about the crime and risk being deported? Or say nothing, and let justice go undone? Over the course of this day, evaluating the weight of his past, his dreams for the future, and the unpredictable, often absurd reality of living invisibly and undocumented, he must wrestle with his conscience and decide if a person without rights still has responsibilities."--Publisher description.… (more)
Genres
Collections
Publication
London : Picador, 2021.
Pages
255
User reviews
LibraryThing member danieljayfriedman
In Amnesty, Aravind Adiga tells the story of Dhananjaya Rajaratnam, a Sri Lankan Tamil from Batticaloa, the most beautiful and mysterious city on the Sri Lankan coast, famous for its magical lagoon with its singing fish. Danny returns to Batticaloa after working for a year as a motel clerk in Dubai
Asylum contains many wonderful touches. Danny pretends to be vegetarian, so that he can find a girlfriend through the online app VeggieDate, but he yearns for mutton, pork, and chicken; he takes two stuffed pandas to bed in his storeroom bedroom above a small grocery store in Glebe; he divides Sydney suburbs into thick bum — working class — and thin bum — Yuppie. He supports himself as a Legendary Cleaner who never wears a face mask to avoid frightening clients. Most of all, Danny strives to look as Australian and as unobtrusive as possible, especially fearing the wealthy and middle class icebox Indians and the Tamils in Australia legally, thinking that they will immediately identify him as illegal.
Adiga interjects many poignant touches into Asylum. Danny ruefully prides himself as honest, reliable, and intelligent. He finds some comfort in downtown Sydney, with its polyglot, multiracial crowds, and panics in Sydney’s white suburbs, where he fears identification as illegal. Danny works hard at assimilating, or at least at what he believes is assimilating: he takes care not to pronounce the “p” in “receipt”, he takes notes on the different types of rugby, he highlights his hair. In the end, Danny must choose between his own uprightness and his life in Australia.
Asylum provides a different perspective on immigration than other excellent recent novels such as Mohsin Hamid's Exit West, Sunjeev Sahota's The Year of the Runaways, Valeria Luiselli's Lost Children Archive, and Yuri Herrera's Signs Proceeding the End of the World. I’ve read four of Aravind Adiga’s five novels, and all feature transparently lucid prose, what feels like effortless writing, and characters and situations that veer between utmost seriousness and cockeyed humor. Asylum ranks with Adiga’s best. 4.5 stars
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— wearing a suit to work! — and finds himself suspected and tortured by local police for involvement in the Tamil Tigers. Danny hops a flight to Sydney on a student visa, decides that diploma mill for foreigners seeking citizenship is too expensive, and files a futile petition for asylum. Danny chooses life as an illegal immigrant: Asylum follows him through his four years in Australia. This is a classic immigration story, but set in Australia and with an apparently middle class immigrant. Asylum contains many wonderful touches. Danny pretends to be vegetarian, so that he can find a girlfriend through the online app VeggieDate, but he yearns for mutton, pork, and chicken; he takes two stuffed pandas to bed in his storeroom bedroom above a small grocery store in Glebe; he divides Sydney suburbs into thick bum — working class — and thin bum — Yuppie. He supports himself as a Legendary Cleaner who never wears a face mask to avoid frightening clients. Most of all, Danny strives to look as Australian and as unobtrusive as possible, especially fearing the wealthy and middle class icebox Indians and the Tamils in Australia legally, thinking that they will immediately identify him as illegal.
Adiga interjects many poignant touches into Asylum. Danny ruefully prides himself as honest, reliable, and intelligent. He finds some comfort in downtown Sydney, with its polyglot, multiracial crowds, and panics in Sydney’s white suburbs, where he fears identification as illegal. Danny works hard at assimilating, or at least at what he believes is assimilating: he takes care not to pronounce the “p” in “receipt”, he takes notes on the different types of rugby, he highlights his hair. In the end, Danny must choose between his own uprightness and his life in Australia.
Asylum provides a different perspective on immigration than other excellent recent novels such as Mohsin Hamid's Exit West, Sunjeev Sahota's The Year of the Runaways, Valeria Luiselli's Lost Children Archive, and Yuri Herrera's Signs Proceeding the End of the World. I’ve read four of Aravind Adiga’s five novels, and all feature transparently lucid prose, what feels like effortless writing, and characters and situations that veer between utmost seriousness and cockeyed humor. Asylum ranks with Adiga’s best. 4.5 stars
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LibraryThing member brangwinn
In thinking about this book after reading it, I begin to appreciate the disjointedness of the story. Danny, an illegal immigrant from Sri Lanka, has been in Australia for four years. His life was disjointed as he was continually fearful of being deported. He’s a house cleaner and his life is
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further complicated by his belief he knows who killed one of his clients. He’s an honest person and knows he must report his information to the police. In doing so he stands a chance of being deported. At times, the disjointedness was confusing and even with the story clearly labeled with the time of day things were happening, it still felt longer than 12 hours. What is most clear from reading this book is that illegal immigrants contribute to the economy of the country, but their illegal status makes them prey for being cheated out of what they have earned. Show Less
LibraryThing member alanteder
Tedious Not-so-thrilling Thriller
Review of the Scribner hardcover edition (2020)
I felt betrayed by the shill synopsis and blurbs which promised an intriguing cat and mouse game between an undocumented immigrant to Australia and their suspected culprit in the murder of a woman that they both knew.
We are told many times that the immigrant is wearing a vacuum cleaner on his back as if it was an astronaut's oxygen pack while constantly observing a Coca-Cola sign somewhere in Sydney, Australia. I've never been to Sydney, but that Coca-Cola sign must be prominent local feature based on this writing as it is mentioned at least a dozen times for no apparent reason.
Although the story is packaged as a day-in-the-life experience collapsed into a less than 24-hour time frame, it mostly consists of flashbacks to the Sri Lankan immigrant's days in his home country and as a hotel worker in Dubai, and of his past encounters with the suspected culprit and the victim. Very little pro-active crime solving takes place. You are led to expect some sort of clever outcome (implied by the Amnesty of the title) but the ending is a banal disappointment.
Review of the Scribner hardcover edition (2020)
I felt betrayed by the shill synopsis and blurbs which promised an intriguing cat and mouse game between an undocumented immigrant to Australia and their suspected culprit in the murder of a woman that they both knew.
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The actual result was quite tedious and a struggle to continue reading.We are told many times that the immigrant is wearing a vacuum cleaner on his back as if it was an astronaut's oxygen pack while constantly observing a Coca-Cola sign somewhere in Sydney, Australia. I've never been to Sydney, but that Coca-Cola sign must be prominent local feature based on this writing as it is mentioned at least a dozen times for no apparent reason.
Although the story is packaged as a day-in-the-life experience collapsed into a less than 24-hour time frame, it mostly consists of flashbacks to the Sri Lankan immigrant's days in his home country and as a hotel worker in Dubai, and of his past encounters with the suspected culprit and the victim. Very little pro-active crime solving takes place. You are led to expect some sort of clever outcome (implied by the Amnesty of the title) but the ending is a banal disappointment.
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LibraryThing member auntmarge64
I will be honestly interested in how others review this book. Have I missed the point completely? Is it as monotonous as it seems? Or is that the point?
An illegal immigrant from Sri Lanka, Danny lives in Sydney, spending his days carting around his cleaning supplies to various private customers,
That's it. And let me tell you, reading about someone wandering around a city (detailed exhaustively almost minute-by-minute), is boring. How many times can Danny rethink the same line of debate and pass the same landmarks before the reader wants it over, for goodness sake? There is a resolution, thank god, or I'd have had to throw the book out the window. Even the details of life as an illegal in Australia don't make this very interesting. Save some time - PM me if you want to know what he decides.
An illegal immigrant from Sri Lanka, Danny lives in Sydney, spending his days carting around his cleaning supplies to various private customers,
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letting himself in to work and then leaving with the cash pay left out by his customers. One morning as he is cleaning for his #4 customer, he notices that there is a large police presence at the home of customer #5, just behind #4. #5 has been murdered, and Danny realizes he may be the only person who knows of her relationship with his customer #6. So he finds himself with two problems: determining for himself whether he really thinks #6 murdered #5, and what to do if the answer is positive. Danny really, really doesn't want to be deported, but his conscience demands that he consider turning himself in so he can give police the lead. All day he wanders around the city, thinking about his past, mulling over the disgrace of being sent back to his homeland, and taking calls from a rather threatening #6, who realizes Danny can identify him.That's it. And let me tell you, reading about someone wandering around a city (detailed exhaustively almost minute-by-minute), is boring. How many times can Danny rethink the same line of debate and pass the same landmarks before the reader wants it over, for goodness sake? There is a resolution, thank god, or I'd have had to throw the book out the window. Even the details of life as an illegal in Australia don't make this very interesting. Save some time - PM me if you want to know what he decides.
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LibraryThing member froxgirl
This novel drags out the terrible journey of Danny, undocumented house cleaner of Sydney, Australia, from his home in Sri Lanka to Dubai, back home again, and then as the victim of a scam that leaves him without a path to citizenship under the country's harsh laws. The plot unfolds beautifully in
Quotes: "For the other illegals, shame was an atmospheric force, pressing down from outside; in him, it bubbled up from within."
"Prakash had that terrible look of a hungover fortysomething-year-old, now at the stage of his life where drinking depletes some permanent reserve of strength inside. An instinct is sitting here, not a man."
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the details of Danny's travels and travails, how he was taken advantage of everywhere he went, but the story of this one particular day drags. Danny has been cultivated by a woman and her lover whose homes he cleans immaculately, earning him the nickname “Legendary Cleaner”. Radha and Prakash take Danny under their wing, and Radha promises to assist with his citizenship quest and to help him to avoid arrest and deportation, but the couple argue violently and share a gambling problem, and on the day that Radha is murdered, Danny must decide what course of action to take, if any. As the day drags on and Prakash and Danny play cat-and-mouse, Danny's entire story is revealed in its misery. It's a moving and disturbing book, just what you'd expect from this celebrated author, but the structure weakens the reward for the reader.Quotes: "For the other illegals, shame was an atmospheric force, pressing down from outside; in him, it bubbled up from within."
"Prakash had that terrible look of a hungover fortysomething-year-old, now at the stage of his life where drinking depletes some permanent reserve of strength inside. An instinct is sitting here, not a man."
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LibraryThing member hemlokgang
Aravind Adiga can tell such a dark story while simultaneously charming the reader. Danny, a Sri Lankan living beyond his visa expiration in Australia, works his way into the reader's heart. As witness to a murder, he must choose whether to report what he knows, risking deportation, or not to
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report. As he struggles with the decision, the reader must endure the disturbing, shameful details of the immigrant life of perpetual fear. All credit to Adiga for being an outstanding storyteller and being able to convey the painful ambivalence of moral dilemma. . Show Less
LibraryThing member bostonbibliophile
Boring, predictable and sad.
LibraryThing member CarrieWuj
3.5 Danny, in his words, is a brown person living invisibly in Sydney, Australia. He is an illegal immigrant from Sri Lanka who left due to government abuse and came to Australia on a student visa with the encouragement of a shady money-making university that only wanted more money after he
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arrived. He leaves uni, and tries to seek asylum, but also abdicates his visa and passport. He manages to live under the radar of the Australian equivalent to ICE and evade deportation for 4 years. He becomes a Legendary Cleaner, cleaning various homes and flats for cash and taking pride in his work. He also works in a small grocery and lives in the stockroom with the white owner, Tommo taking a cut of all his pay. Just the daily fear and threat his lives with is harrowing enough. Australia's laws seem to be much stricter than the US, having penalties for those who employ illegals and having widespread outreach for "tattle" hotlines to report suspects. "Idealism and corruption flowed side by side in Sydney like parallel streams of sewage. White people would be lecturing you on your rights all the way to the deportation vehicle." Danny is sharp and smart - he blends in well with the vanity of bleached hair tips and doesn't take unnecessary risks or break any laws, but works hard and keeps his head down. His girlfriend Sonja is a bright spot in his life and starts to make him feel like part of something. The hardship of this lifestyle is conveyed well and with humor surprisingly, because Danny is so easy-going. However there is a plot twist. When one of his cleaning clients is murdered, Danny thinks he knows who did it. He spent a lot of time with the dead woman and her lover who was also a client. He became an unwitting part of of their love triangle. Now to share his knowledge puts his own life in jeopardy. The action takes place in a single day and Danny debates with himself to "dob in" or not the man he suspects who can just as easily "dob in" Danny as an illegal. Watching Danny debate his conscience, weigh his options, and share the backstory of what drove him from Sri Lanka makes for a very compelling, empathetic read. Show Less
LibraryThing member arubabookwoman
Danny is a housecleaner in Sydney, Australia. He's an illegal immigrant from Sri Lanka, so he is constantly on the lookout so that he won't be found out and deported. Because of his status he takes underpaid jobs, and frequently finds himself at the mercy of unscrupulous people. The book does a
One day while on a job he learns that one of his former clients has been murdered. He has knowledge that the murdered woman had been having an affair with another of his clients, and because of things he witnessed he believes the other client may be the murderer. Facts come out which seem to confirm his suspicions. Thus his dilemma--if he reports his suspicions to authorities he will probably be found out as an illegal alien and deported. If he doesn't report his suspicions, a murderer may go free.
The bulk of the book is the story of Danny's day as he wanders about Sydney trying to make a decision about what to do. There were times when Danny is playing a game of cat and mouse with the suspected murderer, but for the most part the book is unsuccessful at creating a sense of dramatic tension. It mostly became a rather boring itinerary of a man walking the mundane streets of Sydney. Maybe if you were familiar with the city, there might be some drama. I really just couldn't connect with the book, despite its good premise. One word that stuck out to me from an Amazon review was "tedious."
2 stars.
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good job of depicting what it must be like to live subject to potential deportation at every turn. Unfortunately, otherwise it is not a successful book.One day while on a job he learns that one of his former clients has been murdered. He has knowledge that the murdered woman had been having an affair with another of his clients, and because of things he witnessed he believes the other client may be the murderer. Facts come out which seem to confirm his suspicions. Thus his dilemma--if he reports his suspicions to authorities he will probably be found out as an illegal alien and deported. If he doesn't report his suspicions, a murderer may go free.
The bulk of the book is the story of Danny's day as he wanders about Sydney trying to make a decision about what to do. There were times when Danny is playing a game of cat and mouse with the suspected murderer, but for the most part the book is unsuccessful at creating a sense of dramatic tension. It mostly became a rather boring itinerary of a man walking the mundane streets of Sydney. Maybe if you were familiar with the city, there might be some drama. I really just couldn't connect with the book, despite its good premise. One word that stuck out to me from an Amazon review was "tedious."
2 stars.
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LibraryThing member steve02476
A little hard to follow in spots but a great story about a Sri Lankan illegal immigrant in Sidney, Australia. Very atmospheric.
Awards
Miles Franklin Literary Award (Shortlist — 2021)
NPR: Books We Love (2020)
Original language
English
Original publication date
2020