Amnesty takes place in a very recognisable Sydney. As his day slowly worsens, Tamil cleaner Danny weaves around the city from Erskineville to Glebe to Darlinghust. But his version of Sydney is one fraught with danger, and loaded with places welcoming without too many questions. Danny fled persecution in Sri Lanka not by boat, but by student visa, and having overstayed, knows he has no chance whatsoever of being granted a humanitarian visa just as the Australian government is trying to "normalise" relations with the government that tried to kill him. Now he has to choose - whether to reveal what he knows about a serious crime, and face deportation and possible torture, or to keep his head down and keep living on a knife edge.
Adiga captures this dilemma, and the world which it exists in, beautifully in this book. Unfortunately, not everything else about Amnesty worked for me. The crime plot doesn't have enough intrigue or character development to really sustain interest. The focus on Danny means there is much more telling than showing, and the book is weighed into tedium at times. The punch evident in some of Adiga's other works was missing. It's a shame, because the book is deliberately and importantly subversive of many of the narratives around migration and refugees.