Why Anuradha Roy's book finds a place on the Booker list

I read Sleeping on Jupiter as a reader whose sensibilities were uncorrupted by feedback. The book was not yet out and I received a digital copy in email; a locked pdf marked "Not For Sale", for a review. I was lost in the book for the next couple of hours. Once I read the last page, I had to take a really deep breath to collect myself; the book shook me to the core. Sleeping on Jupiter came across as strong, visual, poignant, and atmospheric; and something I couldn't put down.

I admit I didn't think of the Man Booker or any prize immediately. My reflex insisted I put the word out to my fellow-bibliophiles how this book needs to be noticed, read, and go places and I had my reasons for saying this. Essential contemporary debates were weaved into the plot without seeming contrived or crowded with storylines. The realities in the story were ugly, bitter and hard-to-read; yet the narrative was not repulsively horrifying. The fabric of the story was rich and detailed; there was enough suspense to keep turning pages yet the lyrical prose made one want to linger on each page. This book is what you call a literary page turner.

The violence in the story is one of the supreme order, the sort the media warns us can happen to anyone any place in this country; right from the very impressive, beautifully crafted yet chilling, opening scene. Innocence, the sort one has at the age or six or seven, is felled here with an axe that destroys a little family forever. The men of the family are killed, it's not known why, except that it is "the year of the war"; and the women are scattered.

Then there is human trafficking, followed by sexual abuse. There are corrupt godmen, runaway girls and temple-town-underbelly narratives. There are adoption stories gone awry. There's a girl is search of her past. Then there are three lonely, elder women companions who need to find themselves in their present, and a train that brings them all into a common trail. There are more-than-friendships among men and unrequited love. There are people with pasts known and undisclosed, secrets waiting to be uncovered; the list can go on.

"Sleeping on Jupiter has received glowing reviews for its attempt at exposing the hypocrisies of Indian society", says Michael Wood, chair of this year's Man Booker judging panel.

These hypocrisies are certainly not unique to Indian society; they will strike a chord in any society across the globe. They reflect the reasons why the human race might soon be extinct. Sleeping on Jupiter adds to the stories of the world that need to be documented, of a human race that kills just because it has a reason at the moment to do so and refuses to take responsibility for the monsters it creates in the wake of the act.

This is why Anuradha Roy's book finds a place on the Man Booker list.