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.
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"According to many reviewers on Amazon, this Booker Award winning novel was judged to be difficult and unreadable. I find it the opposite. While slow to get into, it swiftly becomes a compelling story with vivid characters that you care about. Set in modern day India, with a side story of an illegal immigrant in the U.S., the novel traces the fates of the judge, a retired Indian official who was educated in England and now lives in a decaying manse, his granddaughter Sai who is in love with a Gorka revolutionary who rejects her in the name of freedom fighting, the cook who works for the judge and whose son Biji has immigrated to American where he is an impoverished and exploited restaurant worker and several other minor charcters.The story is heartrending and also delineates Indian society revealingly, both the Anglicized upper clas and the overwhelming acres of the poor. Desai's writing is distinct and poetic and ravishing." — Joan (5 out of 5 stars)
"According to many reviewers on Amazon, this Booker Award winning novel was judged to be difficult and unreadable. I find it the opposite. While slow to get into, it swiftly becomes a compelling story with vivid characters that you care about. Set in modern day India, with a side story of an illegal immigrant in the U.S., the novel traces the fates of the judge, a retired Indian official who was educated in England and now lives in a decaying manse, his granddaughter Sai who is in love with a Gorka revolutionary who rejects her in the name of freedom fighting, the cook who works for the judge and whose son Biji has immigrated to American where he is an impoverished and exploited restaurant worker and several other minor charcters.The story is heartrending and also delineates Indian society revealingly, both the Anglicized upper clas and the overwhelming acres of the poor. Desai's writing is distinct and poetic and ravishing."
" A masterpiece of a book - rich in its complexity, yet beautiful in the way it's woven. A slowly winding path that gives you a glance into the sleepy yet vibrant world of some very wonderful characters. This book will make you ache for family and loved ones, and stir your heart in unexpected ways! "
" Thought it was going to be better than it was. Well written but I just did not like any of the characters and I thought the storyline was a little predictable, not that I cared by the end! "
" I liked this book, I think. I am a little ambivalent about it because it was confusing at times. It was also very depressing. It shed an extremely interesting light on colonialism and globalization and the different points of view definitely added an intriguing dynamic to the book. "
" The Inheritance of Loss might be my favorite book. If you're a "word person," meaning you delight in the selection of words like picking fruit from a tree, this book is for you. Kiran Desai's descriptions both of characters and landscapes- which come gloriously to life as characters of their own- will satisfy a need for storytelling you might not even know you have. The discovery is hard to describe. If you're reading this, stop and go to the library NOW. "
" Really, didnt like it. Couldnt get into it. Not my style... "
" You don't know until you have lived it...this books lives it with you. "
" I'm just gonna stop read this book. I know this book had won man booker prize award, but I can't enjoyed it. too much narration and I can't imagine people living a life like that. gave this book 1 star doesnt mean this book is not good, but i just don't like reading it. "
" I really tried to like this book, but it never grabbed my interest: boring "
" Amazing take on the post colonial! Highly recommend. "
" Wow.. that took a long time. I was not really into it. "
" Not at all what I usually read, but I really enjoyed it. "
" Lyrical. I can see why winner of Booker. I feel like I just came from a trip to India. "
" boring book = deleted from e-book - did not finish..firt book in years i have not finished. "
" Very artistically written but kind of slow at the beginning and difficult to get into. My husband couldn't get through it. "
" Kiran Desai is amazing, and this book -- beautiful. I read it a long time back, but heard her speak recently and fell back into love. Will have to read it again! "
" I'm sorry, but I really don't get it. It's hard to read and as much as I liked the descriptions, I don't really understand what's so brilliant about it that it won awards. "
" This novel has all makings of a great book but it falls short. The characters, a disillusioned judge in India, his granddaughter, his dog, his cook and the cook's son in America all struggle with the troubles in their lives. "
" Definitely not a book to read if your looking to be cheered up. Very sad the way things in India have happened. I did like the ending at least it was sort of happy. Not really sure I would recommend it to anyone for further reading. "
" I struggled thru the middle of this book but continued on, I'm glad I did. Toward the end I couldn't put it down. "
" this book was so so good...but i didnt like it...three stars for the work tried on it... "
" Very depressing and a tough slog. I don't think I made it more than a quarter of the way. "
" It has taken me years to slog through this one. I was determined to finish it. The writing is well done, the subject was interesting but I never developed sympathy for the various characters. Depressing from beginning to end. "
" Rich, elegant, wise, and moving. "
" Very atmospheric, to the detriment of the plot. "
" Beautiful writing...some of the descriptions made me want to purr they were so seamless and insightful. I also liked the complicated psychological issues that were so dead-on and universally felt. "
" The story line is so thin. What is it with the judge and the dog? Is it a story worth the Booker Prize?But I really did love some of the metaphors she uses. The story is simple and she keeps the narrative on one level only. "
" The characters' histories and politics all came alive in this magnificent novel. It managed to be political, informative, and insightful while maintaining an exciting plot and stunning language. I loved it! "
" It is pretty amazing how this author really captures the characters. And what a great perspective on life in Darjeeling, India. And on life of an Indian living illegally in New York City. "
" Hated the book, could not get through it "
" Relentlessly depressing multiculturalism. Well-written but didactic and poorly constructed. "
" Wow-- definitely my favorite English fiction by an Indian author (and I've read a lot of them). Completely different perspectives on the way colonization can damage a culture. "
" poetic, but I didn't really connect emotionally with the characters. I felt the theme of global dislocation and social detachment fostered a kind of distance with the text itself. That said, interesting and original. "
" Must read. Thought provoking in a heart breaking kind of way. "
Kiran Desai was born in India and was educated in India, England, and America. She is the author of the critically acclaimed Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard and The Inheritance of Loss, which won the Man Booker Prize in 2006.
Meera Simhan is a film and stage actress who was born in England and raised in San Diego. Her first lead film role was as Linda Jones in Date Movie in 2006. Since then she has appeared in a number of films and television shows, including Iron Man, Law & Order, The Young and the Restless, and The Mentalist.
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