‘It is vanishingly rare for a writer to both confront the ugliness of humanity and still search for its beauty. Roy is that rare writer.’ – Naomi Klein

Arundhati Roy is one of today’s most esteemed public intellectuals. The author of novels including the Booker Prize-winning The God of Small Things, Roy is equally respected as a political essayist. Her words on topics from the COVID-19 pandemic to the plight of India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi have helped define public discourse in India and beyond.

Now, on September 4, Roy comes to the Intelligence Squared stage for an exclusive event. Combining the signature scale, sweep and depth of her novels, and the passion, political clarity and warmth of her essays, Roy will draw on the themes of her new memoir for a compelling exploration of her life and work.

Born out of the onrush of memories and feelings provoked by her mother Mary’s death, Mother Mary Comes to Me is Roy’s telling of her own story from childhood to the present, from Kerala to Delhi. An ode to freedom, a tribute to thorny love and savage grace, it is a memoir like no other.

Join us at Cadogan Hall for a rare opportunity to hear from one of the greatest writers of our generation, and have your questions answered in the Q&A.

Further praise for Arundhati Roy

‘Arundhati Roy is one of the most confident and original thinkers of our time.’ – Naomi Klein

‘Arundhati Roy calls for ‘factual precision’ alongside of the ‘real precision of poetry.’ Remarkably, she combines those achievements to a degree that few can hope to approach.’ – Noam Chomsky

‘Arundhati Roy, the direct descendant of Antigone, resists and denounces all tyrannies, pleads for their victims, and unflinchingly questions the tragic. Reflect with her on the answers she receives from the political world today.’ – John Berger

‘Roy writes…with a fecund, teeming visuality that is entirely her own. A masterpiece, utterly exceptional.’ – William Dalrymple