The Inheritance of Loss
November 2011
November 2009
October 2009
June 2007
May 2007
November 2006
Book-burning threat over town's portrayal in Booker-winning novel
When she won the Booker prize, Kiran Desai lifted the town of Kalimpong into the glare of the media spotlight. But few in the town are now thanking her for setting her novel, The Inheritance of Loss, there. Internet forums hum with indignation about the book's "condescending statements", while others threaten public book-burnings.
October 2006
Culture VultureDesai's Booker win: what the papers said
Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss: set in India,
written in India, with Indian bits, according to
the Times of India. Photograph: PA
If the bookies were confounded, the commentators were astonished. Was it one of the Booker's famous compromise decisions? No, insisted Hermione Lee, the chair of judges. There was "no ambiguity" about the decision. So how did the two favourites, "the Welsh lesbian author" (copyright Daily Mail) Sarah Waters and "the former heroin addict" (ditto) Edward St Aubyn get knocked out by a 35-year-old with a second novel?
Culture VultureOutsider Desai takes Booker prize
Well, who'd have thought it? Not the bookies, clearly - they rated her as a 5-1 outsider. But the judges disagreed, and awarded this year's prize to Kiran Desai, the daughter of thrice Booker-nominated Anita, for The Inheritance of Loss, her novel of family, love and politics set in the foothills of the Himalaya.
