Arundhati Roy Wins US Book Critics Award

India-West News Desk

NEW YORK, NY- Author Arundhati Roy has been awarded the National Book Critics Circle prize for her memoir, ‘Mother Mary Comes to Me’.  

A ceremony for the 2025 publishing year winners was held at the New School in Manhattan, here, on March 26. 

Nan Graham, publisher-at-large for Scribner, accepted the award on Roy’s behalf. “She is the bravest woman I know, and she loves people who help her find readers, and that is you,” told the audience, adding, “An award makes a book last longer, and I am so grateful to you for making this book last longer.”

Autobiography committee chair Grace Talusan noted that the award recognizes works that illuminate “the beautiful, painful truths about being human,” describing Roy’s work as an intimate journey that captures her evolution from an architecture student to a writer while tracing her relationship with her mother.

Arundhati Roy’s ‘Mother Mary Comes To Me’ was in contention for the award with other finalists including Geraldine Brooks’ ‘Memorial Days’, Beth Macy’s ‘Paper Girl’, Hanif Kureishi’s ‘Shattered’,and Miriam Toews’ ‘A Truce That Is Not Peace.’

Concluding the evening, NBCC President Adam Dalva addressed the current media climate, stating that the awards serve as a defiant continuation of a mission to “think freely” at a time when “the very concept of the free press is under attack.” Dalva asserted that criticism allows for the kind of deliberation that feeds creatively and practically into culture and politics.