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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.
"Searing and inventive," Amnesty is a timeless and universal story that succeeds at "illuminating the courage of displaced peoples and the cruelties of those who conspire against them" (Star Tribune, Minneapolis).
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
February 18, 2020 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781797100852
- File size: 247097 KB
- Duration: 08:34:47
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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December 9, 2019
Adiga (The White Tiger) briskly captures an undocumented immigrant’s moral dilemma over whether to help the police solve a murder or remain under the radar in this engrossing tale. After leaving Sri Lanka to attend college in Sydney, Dhananjaya “Danny” Rajaratnam quits school, loses his student visa, and fails to gain refugee status, but he stays in Australia out of fear for his safety back home, where he was misidentified as a Tamil terrorist. He sleeps in a grocery storeroom and earns cash cleaning homes and doing odd jobs. For four years he escapes notice by authorities; even his leftist Vietnamese girlfriend, Sonja, doesn’t know he’s in the country illegally. After one of his clients—Indian-born Radha Thomas—is murdered, Danny deduces that her murderer is her lover, a violent man nicknamed the Doctor. Danny knows Radha and the Doctor frequented the creek where Radha’s body was discovered, and that the Doctor owned a jacket resembling the one wrapped around the body. Adiga recounts Danny’s thoughts, memories, doubts, and hesitation as well as his aborted phone calls with police and ominous contacts with the Doctor, all within a single day. With nuance and vivid faced by a range of Asian Australians while highlighting the dangers faced by the Tamils of Sri Lanka. Adiga’s enthralling depiction of one immigrant’s tough situation humanizes a complex and controversial global dilemma. (Feb.)
This review has been updated. -
Narrator Vikas Adam brings his smooth tenor to another engaging audiobook by Aravind Adiga. Adam creates a quirky persona to portray young Danny's immigrant life in Australia, capturing the vocal rhythms of the young Sri Lankan formerly known as Dhananjaya Rajaratnam. His dilemma is presented vividly. Should he continue evading the authorities, or come forward with evidence to solve a murder? Adam's voice is easy on the ear, so listeners can sink into this hilarious and heartrending story about the search for home. Adam depicts the dramatic tension between Danny's two choices as well as the vivacity of a young person who is working to fit into a new culture. Fans of Adiga's novels will savor this performance. M.R. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
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