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2006 Man Booker Prize Winner

The author of the acclaimed Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard takes readers to the northeastern Himalayas where a rising insurgency in Nepal challenges the old way of life--and opens up a grasping world of conflicting desires.

The Inheritance of Loss

Review by Julie Hale

Desai's second novel takes place in India and New York during the 1980s. The book's central character, Jemubhai Patel, is a retired judge, who lives with his teenage granddaughter, Sai, in Kalimpong, a small town near the Himalayas. Their peaceful world is rocked by the Nepalese revolution, which brings violence and fear to their village. The revolution creates extra problems for Sai, as she and her tutor, a young Nepalese man named Gyan, have become increasingly attracted to one another and must now draw apart. Meanwhile, in New York, a young Indian man named Biju struggles to survive. Biju, whose mother works for Jemubhai, endures a variety of grueling, minimum-wage jobs while concealing the fact that he is an illegal alien. The novel moves back and forth between New York and Kalimpong, providing different perspectives on the Indian experience along the way. The clash between tradition and modernity leads to trouble for Sai and her father, and when Gyan becomes involved in the political upheaval, their lives are changed forever. Desai writes with assurance and lyricism about life in India, and her insights into how South Asia has been affected by America are fascinating and timely. This is an impressive, original novel from a welcome new voice in Indian fiction.

A reading group guide is included in the book.

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Publisher Comments

Kiran Desai's first novel, "Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard," was published to unanimous acclaim in over twenty-two countries. Now Desai takes us to the northeastern Himalayas where a rising insurgency challenges the old way of life. In a crumbling, isolated house at the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga lives an embittered old judge who wants to retire in peace when his orphaned granddaughter Sai arrives on his doorstep. The judge's chatty cook watches over her, but his thoughts are mostly with his son, Biju, hopscotching from one New York restaurant job to another, trying to stay a step ahead of the INS, forced to consider his country's place in the world. When a Nepalese insurgency in the mountains threatens Sai's new-sprung romance with her handsome Nepali tutor and causes their lives to descend into chaos, they, too, are forced to confront their colliding interests. The nation fights itself. The cook witnesses the hierarchy being overturned and discarded. The judge must revisit his past, his own role in this grasping world of conflicting desires-every moment holding out the possibility for hope or betrayal. A novel of depth and emotion, Desai's second, long-awaited novel fulfills the grand promise established by her first.