Writer Arundhati Roy on Monday announced her latest novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, to be published by Hamish Hamilton UK and Penguin India. "I am glad to report that the mad souls (even the wicked ones) in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness have found a way into the world, and that I have found my publishers," the Man Booker Prize-winner said.

The publisher said it was both a pleasure and an honour to be part of the project. “The writing is extraordinary, and so are the characters – brought to life with such generosity and empathy, in language of the utmost freshness, joyfully reminding us that words are alive...” said Simon Prosser, the publishing director of Hamish Hamilton and Penguin Books UK, and Meru Gokhale, who is the editor-in-chief, literary publishing, of Penguin Random House India.

Roy’s literary agent David Godwin said, “Only Arundhati could have written this novel. [It’s] utterly original. It has been 20 years in the making and well worth the wait.”