A New York Times Notable Book of 2018 A devastating novel of multiple narratives, "a mark of Neel Mukherjee's range and force and ambition" (New York Times Book Review). A State of Freedom wrests open the central, defining events of our century: displacement and migration. Five characters, in very different circumstances—from a domestic cook in Mumbai to a vagrant and his dancing bear—find out the meanings of dislocation and the desire to get more out of life.