The Inheritance of Loss is the second novel by Indian author Kiran Desai. It was first published in 2006 and won the Man Booker Prize for that year as well as the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award in 2007.
It was written over a period of seven years after her first book, the critically acclaimed Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard. Among its main themes are migration and living between two worlds and between past and present.
Set in the 1980...
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The Inheritance of Loss is the second novel by Indian author Kiran Desai. It was first published in 2006 and won the Man Booker Prize for that year as well as the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award in 2007.
It was written over a period of seven years after her first book, the critically acclaimed Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard. Among its main themes are migration and living between two worlds and between past and present.
Set in the 1980s, the book tells the story of Jemubhai Popatlal Patel, a judge living out a disenchanted retirement in Kalimpong, a hill station in the Himalayan foothills, and his relationship with his granddaughter Sai.
The novel depicts Sai's love affair with an Indian-Nepalese student named Gyan, set against the backdrop of the insurgency in the Himalayas by the Gorkhali people fighting for their own identity.
Another focus of the novel is the life of Biju, the son of the judge's cook. Biju is an illegal immigrant making his way in New York. While his...
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