This book starts at a sprint and does not stop until it screeches to a halt at its conclusion. It grabbed me at the beginning and did not let go through all of its complex and interconnected pieces: devils and anti-gods, unchosen and almost-chosen, time being compressed and rearranged, fascinating background mythologies and folklore, plagues, pogroms, seditious plays... The worldbuilding drew me in immediately, and the book lends itself to re-reads to further immerse the reader in the intricacies of the world. I, for one, plan to re-read it and do just that.

The Saint of Bright Doors follows the main character Fetter, who was raised like a tool, but now he is trying to build his own life and purposes. He left his rural hometown and found his way to a big modern city(And by modern I really mean it). The world is interesting, full of cults, rebels, and hidden gods. And the city... The city is unique, full of magical and mysterious bright doors. And Fetter is on the brink of discovering their secrets.

We had a very strange relationship with this book. I tried to get into it a couple of times since getting it, but I guess I failed in the end.

It's unusual because the book feels immersive and atmospheric and usually I enjoy it. But in this case, the atmosphere pressured me and gave me some uneasy feelings. The idea of all these cults and their revelries and the gods with hidden agenda... It was weird. I didn't really want to read it, didn't automatically take the book to read another chapter, and tried to pick something else every time. I started it not once, but always returned to the same result. So in the end I decided not to finish it. Sometimes it happens - this book and I, we are just not for each other.

Also, it wasn't easy to understand what was going on in the book. I usually like when authors just drop us in the middle of the world and let us figure out everything by ourselves. But in this case, it was overwhelming.

I still think that this book will find its readers, there are a lot of riddles to solve and many intriguing things to love.

And I want to compliment the ambitious idea and the writing style - they really work to create the right atmosphere.

Thank you Netgalley and Tordotcom for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Absolutely phenomenal!

And I'm definitely tagging this novel as "idk what's going on but i'm down." It shares a space with novels such as the Dyachenkos' Vita Nostra series and Hawkins's The Library at Mount Char, if you want to see where I'm getting at. Utterly bizarre, otherworldly, and definitely the type of speculative fiction I love to read, so ymmv. (Like, seriously. Don't say I didn't warn you.)

I loved the writing. Sure, it's purpley and over the top, but it's done in a creative way where you can still understand the gist of the plot or the situation without being super confused. It's very unique and I'd love to read more from the author.

It's really hard to describe this book. I had the same feelings and emotions with The Locked Tomb series, except this one was way more serious. The worldbuilding is a lot and feels all over the place (with the politics and religion and culture and literally everything else), yet it was contained enough that I could truly appreciate what the author created. It was a great metaphor for how politically and socially messed up a society can be, and how difficult it is to navigate around a new and different society as an immigrant and outsider trying to build a new life.

I think the one thing I disliked was the ending. It sort of fell flat, like letting the air out of a balloon by untying the end. I was expecting a huge bang because the lead-up was wild and had so much tension, but then it just ended that way. Oh well. You can't have everything. But I still loved the story though.

One more thing and this is just a personal preference. I actually wanted more out of the bright doors and devils. At certain parts, it turned Annilation-esque (2018 film). I really loved those scenes, but I'm always down for more cosmic horror.

Now where can I buy a signed copy?

Thank you to Tordotcom and NetGalley for this arc.

HIGHLIGHTS
~a support group for UnChosen Ones
~messiahs who really deserve murdering
~pearl-divers
~far too much paperwork
~a Very Deadly wisdom tooth

2023 seems to be the year of the baffling but amazing masterpiece; this is the second book I’ve read so far this year that has confused but amazed me.

BY ALL MEANS, KEEP ‘EM COMING!

<The moment Fetter is born, Mother-of-Glory pins his shadow to the earth with a large brass nail and tears it from him.>

The Saint of Bright Doors is more than a little tricky to summarise. It starts in a reasonably familiar mode, albeit with its own beautifully unique flavour; a young boy with supernatural abilities is trained as an assassin, raised to kill his distant, powerful father. Ah, yes, we think, settling in comfortably. We know this story! Let us embark upon it again, as retold through Chandrasekera’s eyes and hands and voice.

Well, my darlings, this is not, in fact that story. At all.

Because when Fetter gets to the big city, he just…stays there. Makes a quiet little life for himself. A boyfriend; a support group for other UnChosen Ones; helping out immigrants with their paperwork. He loses interest, and belief in, any great destiny of his own. After the, ah, unique way he was raised, he just wants some peace, to be normal, keep his head down and not make waves.

<He has put away childish things. His mad, violent childhood; the indoctrination; his training as a child soldier in his mother’s war against his father: these things, these people are in his past.>

He ends up Involved anyway.

I’m honestly astonished by how much Chandrasekera manages to pack in to under 400 pages. It’s as though an 800 page doorstopper has been distilled down to its purest and most potent possible form; nothing is rushed, everything has as much space as it needs, but it’s all so concentrated, powerful, especially coming at us through Chandrasekera’s prose, which grabs you by the throat like a garotte. I read the entire book in 24 hours, ravenous for every word, and I can tell it’s going to be a long time before I stop thinking about it.

This is a book that is equal parts about magic and fascism; about supernatural doors that can’t be opened and the weaponisation of organised religion; about devils (sorry, I mean laws and powers) and the inherent, inextricable violence of colonialism. And the thing is, I’ve read books that deal with these topics before (okay, maybe not the doors) but this feels very different, somehow – less cinematic, maybe, more human, messier, more difficult. The Saint of Bright Doors is not the story of a hero either creating or joining the resistance, and neatly cutting off the head of the snake in a dramatic climax; it doesn’t follow the pattern we’re used to, and Chandrasekera uses that to shock us open to a very different way of doing things. This is a book that plunges the reader into a state of dreamy dissonance in which anything and everything seems possible – and is.

I don’t know how to put it better than that.

Because if I try and actually explain The Saint of Bright Doors to you, it really sounds like it shouldn’t work. There’s so many threads, and none of them follow the tropes and conventions we reflexively expect; which should be jarring, but in the shocked dream-state Chandrasekera puts the reader in, it’s instead easy to just go with the flow the story, despite it being so unfamiliar in its bones. The characters are not who we expect (and want?) them to be either; Fetter in particular, as he has no interest in being a hero, doesn’t burn with passion to make things better or stop the evils being perpetuated by his father and said father’s followers. What do you do with a main character like that, in a story where terrible things are happening? Isn’t he obligated to join the resistance? Isn’t that where the story is? What’s going on?

<It is obvious they fear infection, but infection by disease or ideas or identities?>

I can only tell you that it all makes sense as you read it. This is very much one of those you had to be there things – The Saint of Bright Doors is a book you have to read to understand. But that shouldn’t be a problem, because despite what I’ve said it’s easy to read; the pages fly by. Fetter may not be the hero we want, but what he is is an immensely sympathetic (and relatable) twenty-something who doesn’t know what to do with his life, and is just trying to preserve it in the midst of chaotic horror. He’s so easy to understand, to empathise with; the lack of cinematic High Drama is what makes him read so real. There’s a particular, pivotal moment where he Does A Thing that makes no sense at all – but it makes no sense in such a completely human way. I’ve been in that same daze, where you keep walking forward even though you’ll never be able to explain to another person why you did; it jolted me, to see that state of mind captured so perfectly on the page. Fetter isn’t a hero because he’s a real person, and honestly, that makes for better reading.

And my gods, the magic! The supernatural aspects of this story feel both unique and raw; not raw in the sense of unpolished but in the sense of wild, aching, real-and-unpretty. Undomesticated, which is a word I’ve never used to describe magic before but fits so perfectly here. I’ve never read a fantasy where the magical elements felt quite like this; so strange but so believable, impossible but obvious at the same time. Just the fact that we have a support group for UnChosen Ones makes me want to shriek with delight, not (just) because that idea is so damn cool but because all of these people come from different, contradictory faiths that are despite that all equally valid – as evidenced by the fact that Fetter is far from the only one with magical talents. HOW DOES THAT WORK? HOW CAN THE PATH AND THE WALKING AND THE MAN IN THE FIRE ALL BE REAL AT THE SAME TIME? Gah!

(Do not expect an explanation. You will find no hard magic systems here.)

<The bright doors are not locked. They are not even closed. The bright doors of Luriat are wide open.>

The way the supernatural elements were braided into the fascism honestly stunned me – the more I think about it, the more impressed I am, the more I adore Chandraseker’s worldbuilding and twistiness and weird brilliant mind. But one does not, obviously, adore the fascism, and I’m not sure I’m smart enough to talk about this properly, to fully appreciate what Chandrasekera did here. We’re shown a supercontinent (not a world) being battered and burned by pogroms and war, fuelled and incited by the twin sects of the Path Above and the Path Behind, and it is horrifying without being nightmarish, somehow. We see mass executions and people being burned alive, but in that state of dreamy dissonance Chandrasekera has created it is possible to look at these things without flinching – and I think that’s the point.

Let me put it this way: usually, I skim or skip over these kinds of scenes. I simply Cannot. But Chandrasekera let me – made me? – look, and I think there’s something important in that, even if I can’t quite put into words what or why. Maybe because – flinching, and looking away, is…well, cowardly? We flinch away from these same horrors in the real world far too often; we prefer not to see, not to know, not to think about it. Chandrasekera doesn’t give us that option, hypnotises us into looking and seeing, while simultaneously making us able to see. Not by making it less horrifying, but by making us able to bear looking at it. Because we should look at it.

Do you see?

<What I want to do, ultimately, is to break the cycle in which plague and pogrom for the segregated, disaggregated many lead to power and profit for the few. At least for a little while. I want to show people that the death and the loss we’ve learned to accept are neither a curse to be borne nor a price to be paid, but are the efficient functioning of Luriat, working as designed.”>

One thing I do want to note is how well Chandrasekera captures the horrifying absurdity of fascism, something I don’t think I’ve ever seen fiction do before. There’s a bleak humour to the endless lists of governmental factions and departments, a ‘you have to laugh or you’ll cry’ weight to Fetter’s inability to keep straight all the different police and military death-squads. It’s not comedic, but it highlights the despairing wtf of the rational mind being confronted with irrational hate; how the reasoning is so bad it should be funny, would be funny if it were, you know, not about genocide. I can’t think of another book that points out that not only is fascism evil, it’s fucking stupid; that you can’t have fascism without impossible-to-comprehend levels of stupidity.

(Alas, not the kind of stupid that means unorganised, or unable to achieve its objectives. If only.)

And I appreciated, honestly, that none of the cast make any bones about the fact that fascism cannot be overthrown peacefully.

<the power of rulers is always based on death magic, and you can’t topple that without violence.>

This is a weird, wildly imaginative debut that bids you leave your expectations at the door; your prior experience with the fantastical genre will not help you here. There are layers upon layers to this story, and yet I promise you, it is not a dense, heavy read; it is more than a little surreal, and subversive, and strange, and I love it. The Saint of Bright Doors is a shooting star, coming upon you with no warning and full surprise to dazzle you dizzy. It is not fun, but it is impossible to put down and dear gods is it good.

If it doesn’t make all the Best of 2023 lists come December, it will be a crime.

This book is gorgeous and unsettling and strange and I'm not sure how to even start talking about it. I'm a little obsessed--which is odd, because I wasn't even sure I liked it while I was reading it. At the time I thought it was ingenious but not necessarily enjoyable, but now I want to put it in everyone's hands and tap my foot while they read so that I can grill them on what they thought about it.

Saints, the divine, and even passed-over prophets are thick on the ground in The Saint of Bright Doors; the world is poetic and immersive but just a few degrees to one side of readily relatable. It doesn't take turns between the traditional and the modern so much as it shows the chaotic fallout of myth and modernity's collision and messy overlap. It wasn't comfortable to read but I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. It's brilliant even when it's not pleasant.

The pervasive feeling that went with reading this book was "unmoored"; the setting, the time, the characters--everything about this story stands out for sitting uneasily in the mind, or at least for being a ill-at-ease with itself. I started out thinking that I was reading a folkloric-leaning fantasy set in a pre-industrial age and was unsettled when Fetter and his mother get into a car and go somewhere; not a carriage, a car. So I adjusted my sense of the world and the time--to have it jostled again when we find that the gods walking as mortals have not just very earthly yens (and means) for power and control, but also crowdfunding campaigns and televangelists.

"Fetter has seen the convoys of the elite, with their long rows of vehicles, servants, bodyguards, drummers, elephants, spear-carriers, heralds, and motorcycles. Uniforms were a keystone of such displays."
Just *try* anchoring that to an easy referent for place and time.

Our main character--maybe an antihero? though nothing in this book is so clean-cut and uncomplicated--is Fetter. That someone named a child Fetter tells you a bit about the story you're getting into. Fetter is the cast-off son of a man who started out as a pirate and made himself into a messiah before abandoning his child and partner. His mother is obsessed with his father and has raised Fetter to be a tool for revenge. She pulls his emotional strings and manipulates him at every turn; both she and his father--though really, a staggering number of the people in this world--are hopelessly self-involved and never bother to see Fetter for who he is.

But who is he? Fetter's not sure either. He is terribly insecure, desperate to be valued by the people whose esteem is safely out of reach; he's petty and unsure of himself, painfully uneasy in his own skin and uncomfortably ready to trample anyone who looks like a competitor for the approval he craves, and he's inured against trust and honesty by a childhood full of object lessons in their dangers. For all that it's obvious he came upon his brokenness honestly, Fetter is still a difficult character to sympathize with.

This book is so lush and layered and gritty and absolutely nothing is simple. Luriat, the city to which Fetter heads to escape his past, seems like a bastion of modernity and decency at first, a stark relief when contrasted with his backwards village, deeply disturbing mother, and her folk magic practices.

"'What do you want to do with your days?' It's a question they ask every week at the support group for the unchosen, the almost-chosen, the chosen-proximate."

"Here in Luriat, foreign prophetic visions are detritus, not destiny."

Luriat offers free services to its residents, so that no one has to work unless they wish to afford nicer things, but that civilized decency coexists with, and in fact requires, overlooking pogroms, waves of refugees, and internment camps.

"It is through responding to these crises and disasters, he learns, that Luriat's free services came into being: small hard-won victories immediately compromised by the frames of race and caste that control access to them."

There's incisive post-colonial criticism to go with the adept social commentary--and oh, the layers!
Once upon a time, a light-skinned invader from a foreign land showed up on an island with conquest and hegemony in mind, bringing along a shame-based religion. That time was both 10,000 years ago and 20ish years ago. That man stole what he wanted and then brings the old ways and the modern industrial age crashing together and he (literally, in a way only fantasy can realize) stole that island people's land and past from them and erased their memories of the old ways, remaking the world in his image.

Fetter is fascinated with the bright doors in the city of Luriat but it slowly becomes clear that he's something of a door himself, a portal through which the clashing, uneasy relationship between mother & father, tradition & modernity, or myth & capitalist realpolitik is acted out. I still don't know what to make of the way the story ended and whether I think it's the closest this novel comes to having a weak spot or was just right and couldn't have happened any other way. What a book! 4.5 stars

I received an ARC from Tor and Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

P. S.: This is apropos of nothing, but until I was mulling over how to describe The Saint of Bright Doors, I would have sworn it had next to nothing in common with The Archive Undying, a book I read shortly afterward. But the more I groped for words for SoBD, the more I saw broad-strokes parallels in the things that struck me about each book: both have protagonists that are compelling but not comfortable to spend time with, both look at people warped by early close relationships that were exploitative and lacked boundaries, both follow the adult lives of people left behind in the life-altering wake of a god, and they both use narration-POV changes late in the book to startling effect. (SoBD feels decidedly South Asian and AU is set in a world with a Southeast Asian feel and giant robots, so... the parallels do end.)

The Saint of Bright Doors is a book that takes some time to get into and for me, it wasn’t where my mind was at when I encountered it. The drama and high stakes the author sets up, creates beautiful imagery in the mind, but it’s almost too dreamlike and I had a hard time finding firm ground to follow the story. I often like a book that allows me to follow along in what feels to be a dream come to life, but there seems to be so much going on in such a short period of time that I would have to reread pages over again in order to comprehend what was happening. I asked for the audiobook which made it marginally better which is why I can give this book the 3 stars I gave it. I wanted to be mesmerized and hypnotized by the world which was painted by Chandrasekera, however I was simply left a bit confused. I needed a bit more linear plot to follow in order to keep moving forward. I did find it very creative and would probably give more of his works another chance. I may even come back to this at another time when my head is in the right space for it. I think I need to be in a more contemplative mindset.

Evocative and mesmerizing, this view of a world similar to our own and yet fundamentally different is both raw and fully formed. With a complicated history and a lovable hero, it will entrance you and keep you guessing.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my free copy. These opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for an Advanced Review Copy.

This debut certainly starts off strong and reminiscent of the opening to Rebecca Roanhorse's Black Sun. The remainder of the story, while beautifully written, was at times convoluted and chaotic, hence the 2.5 star rating.

I generally prefer a robust world with intricate world-building. I think this book had some of that, but presented in a way that was both hard to follow and keep up with. I think this can be done well (ex. the Malazan series) in a way that presents the reader with building-blocks and hints, allowing them to work some things out for themselves. I just didn't feel like that was successfully done in this case.

I also struggled with the "so what" of the general overarching plot. The middle of the book is only tangentially related to the mystery of the doors in Luriat, almost as if the author was simply adding to the page count. It was also hard to situate Fetter within the plot(s); his rather apathetic nature made it both difficult to understand the world around him and to understand his motivations. For me, there was too much mystery and not enough pay off.

I think the idea was interesting, but the execution didn't pay off for me.

There were very interesting parts to this, but I had a hard time getting into it, and a hard time at the end feeling like we'd gotten somewhere. Not quite what I expected I guess.

Brilliant book. I love the beginning where Fetter remembers his shadow has torn from him at birth. As we learn more about this, we learn he isn't tied to the earth, and can float at will. The word fetter itself means a chain or shackle attached to the ankle to restrain movement. It seemed so interesting to me that his name is Fetter when he is so unfettered.

So from the very first moment I wanted to know where that seeming contradiction would go.

There were some rough bits at the beginning where the tense slipped from past to present tense rather at random, and a bit of heavy-handed world building after that brilliant beginning with Fetter and his shadow, but the story itself. Oh wow. What a rich, amazing story with a very satisfying ending.

Source: DRC via Netgalley (Tor Publishing Group, Tordotcom) in exchange for an honest review
Publication Date: July 11, 2023
Synopsis: Goodreads
Purchase Link: Amazon

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Why did I choose to read this book?

Read either the Netgalley or the Goodreads description of this book (linked above) and tell me you don’t want to know what the absolute fuck is going on in this book. It’s like it challenged me to understand what it might be about and honestly, challenge accepted.

What is this book about?

If I absolutely had to nail down what this book was about, I would say it’s about legacy. I wanted to say destiny, but I think that would be misleading. It starts off as a chosen one type story, but then Fetter leaves his path and starts his own life hidden away. His mother tries to put him back on his path, and his father looms as a larger-than-life religious figurehead that he’s “destined” to kill, but Fetter just wants to have a normal life. How Fetter is blown about and affected by both his mother’s and father’s legacies creates the plot and eventual ending of this book.

What is notable about this story?

I absolutely love a story that is able to conceal a twist until its reveal. I do not want to spoil this at all because it’s so masterfully done, but you will not be disappointed about how things come full circle. The ending is so satisfying.

The bright doors were so interesting. I would love to see some fan art renditions of what the doors look like. There’s one on the cover of the book, but I want more! The idea of “empty realms” or like, multiverses that die off, was an interesting take in the same world where Marvel’s multiverse exists, and the creepiness of the creatures that Fetter could see seeping out through the doors added extra urgency to the characters trying to study what the doors do.

There are so many weird things going on in this story that I didn’t know what to latch onto. if you’ve ever been to a zoo or a museum or even a conference where you had the “Look at that! OMG look over THERE! What’s THAT?!?!” feeling, that is the exact feeling that this book evokes. I read through to the end because I cared about what happened to Fetter, but also because if I just turned this particular corner something really fucking weird or strange could be there for me to enjoy. I never stopped being surprised and entertained in this book, like a golden retriever darting back and forth excited by yet another squirrel. SQUIRREL!

Was anything not so great?

Honestly I can’t find a lot to criticize with this book. It’s written with our current short attention spans in mind, the writing is lush and evocative, and it’s both story and character driven – something I would usually complain about but is done so well here I can’t complain.

What’s the verdict?

4 stars on Goodreads. If you are looking for a book that will hook you from the beginning and throw you on a roller coaster that takes you through a museum of beautiful paintings and terrible histories before ending in a completely different place than you thought you would get off, this book is for you. I highly recommend the experience.

This was a case of 'It's not you, it's me'. I enjoyed the idea of the book and was intrigued by the doors, but couldn't focus on the writing. Currently it's a dnf for me at 30%. I hope to pick up the book in the future and finish it then!

Thank you NetGalley and Tordotcom for the eARC

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. Vajra Chandrasekera is from Colombo, Sri Lanka. He has published over fifty short stories in magazines

i liked this so much it was so fresh and real and i read a lot of fantasy it doidnt seem like the books ive read before maybe a bit pretentious in the dialogue but i dont mind im going to read a second time like right now

Out of respect, I have not posted a review publicly as I am giving this only two stars and a DNF which is very rare for me. I made it 20% and still wasn't engaged. Of course I am curious to know what the doors actually are / what they do /if they lead somewhere, but not so curious that I would keep reading as my TBR pile gets ever taller.

I absolutely love the cover for this novel! It is so beautiful!! The novel’s premise is an interesting one. The main character, Fetter, has been trained his entire life (by his mother) to kill his cult-leader father. His life takes a few turns, and he escapes his mother’s grasp to a city with magical doors. Fetter becomes caught up with investigating the magical doors and plotting against an oppressive regime.

This novel is beautifully written. The way it’s written is almost poetic. The novel was a little bit more conceptual than I would normally read, but this read was so worth it! Looking forward to reading more work by Vajra Chandrasekera!

This is a remarkable piece of work. I really enjoyed maneuvering my way through this unique story.

The main character was trained to do basically one thing, but when their skills seem to atrophy, their life takes on some new twists and turns.

This story has an interesting vibe. I can see how some may not love this, but I caught the rhythm of the writing, and this author really impressed me.

Out July 11, 2023!

Thank you, Netgalley and Publisher, for this Arc!

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Tor. I'm voluntarily leaving a review, and all opinions are my own.

Genre: Fantasy, Intellectual Fantasy, Weird Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Queer Fantasy, South Asian Fantasy
Spice Level: It's not exactly spice in the romance sense but lots of graphic, crude language.
Representation: LGBTQ main characters & discussions about cultural discrimination/prejudice

I loved the concept for this book.

There are many things that were fascinating: the gods, collective memory, the urban setting, mythological background, and of course the doors.

It has a Kafka like feel to it at times.

I was expecting there to be more about the doors and felt that could have been developed more in this complex world. Because my expectations were not met, I'm giving this a lower rating.

However, I think there is an audience for this book who will adore it.

Happy reading!

This book was such a disappointment for me. It was the ARC I was most excited about when I got approved for it. I wanted to know what these bright doors were all about. The story I got however did not focus a lot on these bright doors. Instead, we get very confusing and minimal worldbuilding and a plot that really wasn't that interesting. I still don't understand the politics of this world and if you want me to root for a rebellion it is pretty crucial to understand why we are trying to overthrow something.

Nothing is explained. You just have to go with the flow, but in this case that really did not work for me. The writing style wasn't engaging to me and I struggled to connect with the characters. At the end of the book I found myself skimming the pages to just get it over with.

Every now and then a fantasy book comes along and, literally, blows the doors of the genre. Sri Lankan author Vajra Chandrasekera’s debut The Saint of Bright Doors eschews the urban fantasy tropes of the Western fantasy canon to deliver something modern and fascinating. As all good fantasy does, it takes readers on a mind bending journey that also holds a cracked mirror up to the reality that they are familiar with.
In the startling opening passage, ten year-old Fetter has his shadow removed by his mother and is trained to be a killer. His ultimate task – to kill his father, a cult leader and immensely popular religious figure. But despite this indoctrination, Fetter runs away from this task and moves to the major city of Luriat. In Luriat he joins a support group for the “almost chosen” and through this group is recruited by a women called Koel to go undercover to investigate the Bright Doors of the city. Bright Doors appear when a solid door is closed and ignored for long enough. They do not open but are possibly gateways to other worlds. Through this work, Fetter becomes involved in factions seeking to bring his father to the city and finds his destiny closing in on him.
The Saint of Bright Doors is much more than the sum of these parts. Chandrasekera considers issues of faith, of belonging, of revolution, of power, of class and race, of duty and the porosity of history. Much of the second half of the book, some of it a kafkaesuqe journey through a giant prison, is informed by the global response to the pandemic and the impact that this has had, particularly on the poor and already dispossessed.
The Saint of Bright Doors has been described as intellectual fantasy as if this is a bad thing. It is a book in which the genre is used to expose and test ideas, beliefs and ways of living. Chandrasekera does this by creating an urban fantasy world steeped in the trappings of what we consider modern life – mobile phones, social media - but also informed by old ways of living, the religious, power and class structures that have been left behind by successive regimes. And then pulls off an audacious, twisted conclusion which provides answers to many of the mysteries that have underpinned the action.