06/01/2023
DEBUT After he is separated from his shadow at birth, Fetter is without foundation. He's raised by a messianic figure in a cult where summoning devils and murder are part and parcel of his education. As an adult, he flees to Luriat, a city on the brink of cataclysmic change, where he discovers a new obsession with the Bright Doors. No one knows what is behind them—some believe there are whole worlds, and some believe there is nothing—and Fetter grapples with the unnerving caste system as he digs deeper into the doors' purpose. The threads of the plot are confusing at times, and there is a fair bit of info-dumping. That being said, this novel is driven by the worldbuilding, which is grandly elegant and immersive. Fetter is a relatable character who strays from his destiny, and his journey provides commentary on the threats of oppression and indoctrination. VERDICT Dreamlike and inventive, this unusual novel is a complicated read that ably pairs the mundane with the mystical.—Andrea Dyba
A New York Times Notable Book and Best Fantasy of 2023!
Shortlisted for the Lambda Award!
“Protean, nimble, dazzlingly original, The Saint of Bright Doors offers a grammar for comprehending the knots of atrocity we’re living through, without resorting to the blunt simplicity of allegory.” —Amal El-Mohtar for the New York Times
“A gorgeous blending of the mythic and the mundane.” –Erin Morgenstern, #1 national bestselling author of The Night Circus
“Riveting, surreal, clever and wise and all-too real—a breathtaking achievement.” —Max Gladstone, New York Times bestselling co-author of This Is How You Lose the Time War
“The Saint of Bright Doors is an inspired and dreamy book that follows a hero growing into the role he was always meant to inhabit, with an unexpected ending that answered all my questions from the first chapter. I truly can’t wait to see what Mr. Chandrasekera does next.” —Liz Braswell, The Wall Street Journal
“Chandrasekera builds a dizzyingly complex world, with enough ideas for ten books, and it’s all entertaining enough that his theme — the dangers of religious extremism paired with racist totalitarianism — sneaks up on you.” —Charlie Jane Anders for The Washington Post
“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
“Quietly masterful on a prose level, this novel is doing so much so well….One of the most satisfying novels, in any genre, that I’ve encountered in quite some time.” –Chicago Review of Books
“Truly superb books – ones that are complete, that are organic, that invite themselves into your brain fully formed and transport you somewhere else, that leave you humming and staring and obsessed, that leave characters and images and ideas hard-printed among your own memories – are hard to talk about. It’s hard to talk about Vajra Chandrasekera’s The Saint of Bright Doors.” —Locus
“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
“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
“...the lyrical, precise prose, the original, organic nature of the world building, and the complex themes of purpose, identity, and the biased, often violent, incomplete nature of history-telling will engage readers long after finishing.” —Booklist
“Dreamlike and inventive, this unusual novel is a complicated read that ably pairs the mundane with the mystical.” —Library Journal
“The Saint of Bright Doors is part of an extraordinary recent burst of anglophone SF writing from Sri Lanka.” —Himāl Southasian
