fr om the bestselling autho r of The God of Small Things comes a scathing a nd passionate indictment of big government's disregard fo r the individual. In her Booker Prize-winning novel, The God of Small Things , Arundhati Roy turned a compassionate but unrelenting eye on one family in India. Now she lavishes the same acrobatic language a nd fierce humanity on the future of her beloved country. In this spirited polemic, Roy dares to take on two of the great illusions of India's progress: the massive dam projects that were supposed to haul this sprawling subcontinent into the modern age--but which instead have displaced untold millions--a nd the detonation of India's first nuclear bomb, with all its attendant Faustian bargains. Merging her inimitable voice with a great mo r al outrage a nd imaginative sweep, Roy peels away the mask of democracy a nd prosperity to show the true costs hidden beneath. Fo r those who have been mesmerized by her vision of India, here is a sketch, traced in fire, of its topsy-turvy society, wh ere the lives of the many are sacrificed fo r the comfo r ts of the few.