The Inheritance of Loss
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Inheritance of Loss | |
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| Author | Kiran Desai |
| Country | India |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Hamish Hamilton |
| Publication date | 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) |
| OCLC Number | 65764578 |
The Inheritance of Loss is the second novel by Indian author 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]
It was written over a period of seven years after her first book, the critically acclaimed Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard.[2][3] Among its main themes are migration and living between two worlds and between past and present.
[edit] Plot summary
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.
The novel depicts Sai's love affair with an Indian-Nepalese student named Gyan, set against the backdrop of the insurgency in the Himalayas by the Gorkhali people fighting for their own identity.
Another focus of the novel is the life of Biju, the son of the judge's cook. Biju is an illegal immigrant making his way in New York. While his father proudly boasts to friends and neighbours of Biju's success as a restaurant manager in America, we see Biju migrate between menial jobs, a member of the immigrant underclass in New York, unable to attain legitimacy in the U.S. while struggling to maintain his identity as an Indian.
Intermittently, Sai's presence causes the judge to reminisce about his own life. As a young man he studied at Cambridge University in the 1930s, where he was subjected to racist abuse and humiliation. This caused him, upon his return to India, to grow to detest in others those traits for which he was mocked in England. This is particularly the case in his relationship with his wife, whom he rapes, beats, and eventually abandons.
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] Some material contextualising literature in English to that in the local language Nepali about this region can be found in the book Gorkhas Imagined: I. B. Rai in Translation (2009)[5].
[edit] References
- ^ "And the 2006 NBCC Award for Fiction Goes to ...". Press release. http://bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com/2007/03/and-2006-nbcc-award-for-fiction-goes-to_08.html. Retrieved 2007-03-09.
- ^ Booker Prize Foundation (10 October 2006). "The Inheritance of Loss Wins the Man Booker Prize 2006". Press release. http://www.themanbookerprize.com/pressoffice/release?r=28#titletop. Retrieved 2006-10-10.
- ^ Kiran Desai Interview on the blog Jabberwock January 20, 2006, retrieved 2nd February 2007.
- ^ Book-burning threat over town's portrayal in Booker-winning novel | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited Thursday November 2, 2006, retrieved 2nd January 2007.
- ^ Gorkhas Imagined: I. B. Rai in Translation, Eds. Prem Poddar and Anmole Prasad, Mukti Prakashan, 2009
[edit] External links
- Review by BBC News
- Review by Boston.com
- Review by NY Times, includes MP3 of author reading from the book
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by The Sea |
Man Booker Prize recipient 2006 |
Succeeded by The Gathering |
| Preceded by The March by E. L. Doctorow |
National Book Critics Circle Award 2006 |
Succeeded by The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz |
