Amnesty

'Adiga has more to say than most novelists, and about 50 more ways to say it . . . [He] is a startlingly fine observer . . . Reading him you get a sense of having your finger on the planet's pulse . . . You come to this novel for its author's authority, wit and feeling on the subject of immigrants' lives.' New York Times

Danny - formerly Dhananjaya Rajaratnam - is an undocumented Sri Lankan immigrant. Denied refugee status, working as a cleaner and living out of a grocery storeroom in Sydney, for four years he has been trying to create a new identity for himself, finally coming as close as he ever has to living a normal life.

One morning, Danny learns that his client Radha Thomas has been murdered. A jacket was left at the scene, which he believes belongs to another client, a doctor with whom Radha was having an affair. Suddenly Danny is confronted with a choice: Come forward as a witness and risk being deported? Or say nothing, and let justice go undone? Over the course of a single ordinary, yet extraordinary day, he must wrestle with his conscience and decide if a person without rights nevertheless has responsibilities . . .

'Danny's voice, in its sheer everyday ordariness, will stay with you a long time.' Daily Mail

'Searing . . . A tremendously humane read . . . Adiga is unwavering in the spotlight he trains on . . . a country that promises a "fair go" for all but treats its asylum seekers with hostility and contempt.' Financial Times