Winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2006. A dense book on the tensions between Western and Eastern values during civil unrest in the foothills of the Himalayas amid a household of lonely souls. Its writing is superb, its plot almost irrelevant and indeed very staccato. Not an easy read but a very rewarding one.
At the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas, lives an embittered old judge who wants nothing more than to retire in peace. But with the arrival of his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, and his cook's son trying to stay a step ahead of US immigration services, this is far from easy. When a Nepalese insurgency threatens Sai's blossoming romance with her handsome tutor they are forced to consider their colliding interests. The judge must revisit his past, his own journey and his role in this grasping world of conflicting desires - every moment holding out the possibility for hope or betrayal.
Kiran Desai was born in India in 1971, and was educated in India, in England, and the United States. She is the author of the critically acclaimed Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard and The Inheritance of Loss.
I found The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai a challenging read that richly repaid perseverance. Sai, a teenage girl lives with her anglicised grandfather in the town of Kalimpong in the Himalayas. This novel is a fascinating exploration of inequality, multiculturalism, globalization, fundamentalism and brutality – in every sense a search for identity. The author’s prose is lithe as a snake and a joy to read.
