The Inheritance of Loss

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Title The Inheritance of Loss
Author Kiran Desai
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre(s) Novel
Publisher Hamish Hamilton
Released 31 August 2006
Media type Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages 336 hardback edition); 357 p. (paperback edition)
ISBN ISBN 0-241-14348-9 (hardback) & ISBN 0-8021-4281-8 (paperback)

The Inheritance of Loss is a novel by 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.[1]

Desai's second book, it was written over a period of seven years after her first book, the critically acclaimed Hullaballoo in the Guava Orchard.[2][3] Among its main themes are migration and living in between two worlds and in 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. Another element in the novel is the encroachment on their lives by a band of Nepalese insurgents. Another concern of the novel is the life of Biju, the son of Mr. Patel's cook, an illegal immigrant in New York.

In November 2006, it was reported that the inhabitants of Kalimpong were angered by what were allegedly negative stereotypes of Indian Nepalese people in the novel.[4]

[edit] References

  1. ^ And the 2006 NBCC Award for Fiction Goes to .... Press release. Retrieved on 2007-03-09.
  2. ^ Booker Prize Foundation (10 October 2006). The Inheritance of Loss Wins the Man Booker Prize 2006. Press release. Retrieved on 2006-10-10.
  3. ^ Kiran Desai Interview on the blog Jabberwock January 20, 2006, retrieved 2nd February 2007.
  4. ^ Book-burning threat over town's portrayal in Booker-winning novel | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited Thursday November 2, 2006, retrieved 2nd January 2007.

[edit] External links

Preceded by
The Sea
Man Booker Prize recipient
2006
Succeeded by
TBA