* I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book. *

Danny is an illegal immigrant working as a cleaner in Sydney, having left Sri Lanka for good. In the process of cleaning one of his regulars' places, he notices the police arrive at a nearby flat. He tries to keep out of their way, but soon understands that they are not interested in him; there has been a murder.

Danny also soon realises that he knows the victim; she was one of his former clients. He also thinks he knows who did it, and is now in a moral dilemma: does he tell the police what he knows, or keep his head down and not risk deportation? This decision is made even tougher when the man that he suspects, Prakash, starts calling him incessantly and demanding that they meet.

Adiga does an excellent job of showing the inner Sydney environment through the eyes of a recetn immigrant; the book really has an excellent sense of place. He turns the screws on Danny relentlessly and ratchets up the tension in the novel accordingly, making the moral choice he must make ever harder. A very good read. ( )

A little hard to follow in spots but a great story about a Sri Lankan illegal immigrant in Sidney, Australia. Very atmospheric. ( )

The premise of 'Amnesty' is cohesively relevant to modern times where the plight of undocumented/illegal/overstayers has now been thrust into the limelight in a pandemic stricken world. It's a bold challenge, by implication, to Immigration policies and westerners who boldly argue that "overstaying is a crime." Adiga, acting as the devil's advocate, flips the rhetoric:

'what is unfair? Overstaying? Or exploiting third-world communities and families to part with their lives' savings with the bait of acquiring Permanent Residential status in a new country and then working in tandem with governments to scam the newcomers for their taxes and then showing them the door? After all, how is the west supposed to realize the finances for paying skyrocketing amounts of welfare and superannuation?'

But while Adiga is bold in inquiry, he is convoluted in narration. The book is set over a one day period, and while the author has expressively lent it the feel of a fast paced flick with time divisions-it is anything but swift. The protagonist Danny, the undocumented migrant, comes across as a child stuck in an adult's body. Secondary characters are equally flat and one-dimensional with character development being null. By the third page, 'Amnesty' becomes a marathon to finish and not because Danny the man-child is constantly lost in delusion. The words, while flowing, do not coagulate to form any imagery. If anything, only the ending delivers a punch but this too smacks of decay given the entire novel promises potential but delivers none.

Overall, while 'Amnesty' is relevant to our times Adiga's prose rubbishes whatever he set out to achieve with it. A highly disappointing read. ( )

between 1.5 and 2, unfortunately. he's a good writer, and i thought i'd like this. i do like what he's trying to do, and i learned that maybe australia isn't the haven i've been assuming it is. and some of this is just so achingly beautiful. but this book doesn't work the way he wants it to. or maybe it'd work better for me if i'd read it instead of listened to it. (although i think the reader - vikas adam - was good.)

the idea of an illegal immigrant having crucial information about a homicide, but feeling like he can't tell the police because of his status, feels like a timely and common story. (well, maybe not about a homicide, but about a crime.) it seems like these things must happen all the time, in many countries. danny was seeking amnesty but it wasn't granted, and he has been avoiding the police ever since. so does he tell what he knows?

this could have - should have, even - been more interesting and engaging for me. but mostly i found it boring and tedious, as if all of the pieces weren't fitting smoothly together. it didn't really work for me.

paraphrased: "Make your cell as big as the world." ( )

Aravind Adiga is one of my favorite authors. His books "The White Tiger" and "Last Man in Tower" are masterpieces of tension and storytelling - they are among the best books I have ever read. Unfortunately, "Amnesty" was not as good.

The book's protagonist is a quirky man living on the fringes of society, a typical character for Adiga. Danny is a contract domestic cleaner who believes one of his former employers has been murdered by her boyfriend. The book follows the course of Danny's day as he struggles with whether to inform the police and risk deportation or remain quiet.

The bulk of the book is spent in flashback as Danny recalls how the employer and her boyfriend treated him, took him on day trips, and treated him like a pet, a relationship Danny did not mind because they paid him for his companionship. Adiga treats us to many of Danny's inner thoughts, such as his opinions about past life events in Sri Lanka, other immigrant populations (both documented and undocumented), and Australia's wasteful and hedonistic ways. The gimmick of going through hour-by-hour in Danny's day works because it is filled out with flashbacks.

As a character, it was hard not to sympathize with Danny. He had been tortured in Sri Lanka for political reasons, trained as a hotel worker in Dubai, worked hard in Australia, and still failed to receive asylum. I enjoyed the snippets and slices of life about undocumented and documented immigrants as he saw them, but there wasn't enough to keep me interested.

The ending of the book, a sort of epilogue written in the form of a news article, was quite a letdown. But in truth, I thought the whole of the book was not as intriguing as Adiga's past works. ( )