The Saint of Bright Doors, Vajra Chandrasekera
The Saint of Bright Doors, Vajra Chandrasekera
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The Saint of Bright Doors

Author: Vajra Chandrasekera

Narrator: Sid Sagar

Unabridged: 12 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/11/2023

Synopsis

The Saint of Bright Doors sets the high drama of divine revolutionaries and transcendent cults against the mundane struggles of modern life, resulting in a novel that is revelatory and resonant.

Fetter was raised to kill, honed as a knife to cut down his sainted father. This gave him plenty to talk about in therapy.

He walked among invisible powers: devils and anti-gods that mock the mortal form. He learned a lethal catechism, lost his shadow, and gained a habit for secrecy. After a blood-soaked childhood, Fetter escaped his rural hometown for the big city, and fell into a broader world where divine destinies are a dime a dozen.

Everything in Luriat is more than it seems. Group therapy is recruitment for a revolutionary cadre. Junk email hints at the arrival of a god. Every door is laden with potential, and once closed may never open again. The city is scattered with Bright Doors, looming portals through which a cold wind blows. In this unknowable metropolis, Fetter will discover what kind of man he is, and his discovery will rewrite the world.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor.com.

About Vajra Chandrasekera

Vajra Chandrasekera is from Colombo, Sri Lanka and is online at vajra.me. His debut novel The Saint of Bright Doors won Nebula, Ignyte, Crawford, and Locus awards, was nominated for the Le Guin, Lammy, Hugo awards, among others. His second novel Rakesfall is a New York Times Notable Book of 2024.

About Sid Sagar

Sid Sagar is an award-winning actor, writer and narrator. With over 60 audiobooks narratedto date, Sid has lent his voice to a wide range of genres, from literary fiction to historicalepics to cosy crime. He has won AudioFile Earphones Awards for his narration of SalmanRushdie’s Victory City, Natasha Pulley’s The Hymn to Dionysus and Janice Hallett’s TheMysterious Case of the Alperton Angels. Sid effortlessly shifts between tones, dialects andemotional textures. His narration style has been praised for its clarity and warmth, makingeven the most complex material feel alive and accessible. Beyond audiobooks, Sid regularlyworks on stage and screen. He won an Eastern Eye Award for Best Actor for hisperformance in Kenneth Lonergan’s The Starry Messenger in the West End. Other creditsinclude Cabaret (West End), Ballet Shoes (National Theatre) and Slow Horses (Apple TV+).As a writer, his work includes Middle Men and John from Hemel (BBC Radio 4), BakedBeans (BFI NETWORK), and Biting Point (Hull and UK tour, published by Faber).

Reviews

Goodreads review by Nochu_Dee on August 28, 2023

The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera is one of the weirdest but brilliant books I’ve read in 2023. A lot of western people who read this might not realize that Vajra is actually doing something extremely controversial being a Sri Lankan Buddhist. This story is about Lord Gautham Buddha’s......more

Goodreads review by The Speculative Shelf on January 21, 2023

I’ve never read anything like The Saint of Bright Doors – wildly inventive, totally mesmerizing, and it upended my expectations at every turn. It reads like an established author’s career-defining masterpiece, rather than a debut novel. Vajra Chandrasekera paints a vivid picture of a city on the bri......more

Goodreads review by Bethany (Beautifully Bookish Bethany) on June 21, 2023

This is a great example of a book I admire but didn't necessarily enjoy all that much. The Saint of Bright Doors is a very innovative work of South Asian fantasy about a man who was raised to assassinate his father and the city he finds brief refuge in. A city filled with mysterious doors that he wa......more

Goodreads review by Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship on May 31, 2024

This one is incredible. A literary fantasy that stands out for its use of language, inventiveness and the complexity of its world, coming from a fully non-western perspective and commenting on politics and religion in South Asia rather than the well-worn American issues. Major Le Guin vibes for me,......more

Goodreads review by S.E. on January 20, 2023

An absolute masterclass in worldbuilding. This book entranced me from page one. I'm obsessed with the author's style, with the way he invites us to visit this very real world. It's surreal and strange, a world that could be ours (they have phones and planes and even the UN) but retains the mystical.......more

Quotes

“By turns mythic and modern, The Saint of Bright Doors delivers a spellbinding labyrinth of mysteries...A hypnotic and intricate debut.” —Sequoia Nagamatsu, bestselling author of How High We Go in the Dark

“I've never seen a fantasy world like this, and I've never met a hero like Fetter. Both will haunt me for a long, long time. Keeps on dropping bombs and surprises and brilliance and heartbreak to the very end.” —Sam J. Miller, author of Blackfish City

“A book that explores how marvelously and brutally humanity remakes the world.” —Indrapramit Das, author of The Devourers

“Riveting, surreal, clever and wise and all-too real—a breathtaking achievement.” —Max Gladstone, Hugo and Nebula-Award winning author of This Is How You Lose the Time War

“Layered, lush and lyrical, at once wholly original and unmistakably South Asian. A fascinating debut from a thunderous talent.” —Samit Basu, author of The City Inside

“The Saint of Bright Doors will slip a knife into you the way only the best literature does. It’s the kind of book that makes you a better thinker and a better feeler, even if it’s at the cost of making you a little more haunted.” —Natalia Theodoridou, World Fantasy Award-winning author

“Weirder than Miéville, as deeply humane and philosophical as Le Guin, The Saint of Bright Doors is a tale of belief and myth and story and grief layered with the dense, brilliant luminosity of an oil painting.” —Premee Mohamed, author of Beneath the Rising

Awards

  • Nebula Awards - Winner
  • Dragon Awards
  • New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year
  • The IAFA William L. Crawford Fantasy Award
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