Kiran Desai

Kiran Desai
Kiran Desai, 2007
Born	September 3, 1971 (1971-09-03) New Delhi, India
Occupation	Novelist
Nationality	Indian
Period	1998 to present
Notable work(s)	The Inheritance of Loss
Influences Anita Desai (mother, short-listed for the Booker prize three times)

Kiran Desai (born 3 September 1971) is an Indian author who is a citizen of India and a permanent resident of the United States. Her novel The Inheritance of Loss won the 2006 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award. She is the daughter of the noted author Anita Desai and the partner of Orhan Pamuk.

Biography

Kiran Desai was born in New Delhi, India, and lived there until she was 10. She left India at 14, and she and her mother then lived in England for a year, and then moved to the United States, where she studied creative writing at Bennington College, Hollins University, and Columbia University.

In January 2010, the Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk acknowledged that he was in a relationship with Desai.

Work

Her first novel, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, was published in 1998 and received accolades from such notable figures as Salman Rushdie. It won the Betty Trask Award, a prize given by the Society of Authors for the best new novels by citizens of the Commonwealth of Nations under the age of 35.

Her second book, The Inheritance of Loss, (2006) has been widely praised by critics throughout Asia, Europe and the United States and won the 2006 Man Booker Prize as well as the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award.^{[citation needed]}

In September 2007 she was a guest on Private Passions, the biographical music discussion programme hosted by Michael Berkeley on BBC Radio 3.^{[citation needed]} In May 2007 she was the featured author at the inaugural Asia House Festival of Asian Literature.

Kiran Desai's Jemubhai Patel in Inheritance of Loss and her mother, Anita Desai's Nanda Kaul in Fire on the mountain have some similarities. Both of them want to lead a secluded life. They don't want to be disturbed by others. Their grandchild is the first one who disturbs their aloneness. At first, they feel the presence of their grandchild embarrassing. But, they gradually understand that there are certain similarities between them and their grandchildren. In the portrayal of Jemubhai Patel, Kiran Desai must have been inspired by the character, Nanda Kaul of her mother.^{[citation needed]}

Bibliography

• Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard. Faber and Faber. 1998. ISBN 0-571-19336-6. 
• The Inheritance of Loss. Hamish Hamilton Ltd. 2006. ISBN 0-241-14348-9. 

See also

• English literature
• Desai
• Indian English literature

External links

• Legacies, Loss and Literature, Nirali Magazine, December 2006
• SAWNET biography
• Rediff interview
• Lunch with Kiran Desai
• Bold Type: Interview with Kiran Desai
• Kiran Desai interview with THECOMMENTARY.CA October 2007