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Kiran Desai

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Kiran Desai
Desai reading on behalf of Salman Rushdie at the 2024 National Book Awards finalist reading
Born (1971-09-03) September 3, 1971 (age 55)
New Delhi, India
EducationBennington College, Hollins University, Columbia University
OccupationNovelist
RelativesAnita Desai (mother)
Writing career
Period1998–present
Notable works
Notable awardsMan Booker Prize
2006

Kiran Desai is an Indian author. Her novel The Inheritance of Loss won the 2006 Man Booker Prize[1] and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction.[2] In 2015, The Economic Times named her one of 20 most influential global Indian women.[3]

Early life and education

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Kiran Desai is the daughter of author Anita Desai.[4] Desai was born in New Delhi,[5] then lived in Punjab and in Mumbai,[6] where she studied at Cathedral and John Connon School.[7]

Desai left India at 15,[8] and she and her mother lived in England for a year before moving to the United States.[4] She studied creative writing at Bennington College, Hollins University, and Columbia University.[9]

Literary career

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Kiran Desai during a book tour in 2013

Desai's first novel, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, was published in 1998.[10] It won the Betty Trask Award, a prize given by the Society of Authors for best new novels by citizens of the Commonwealth of Nations under the age of 35.[11]

Her second book, The Inheritance of Loss (2006), is set in the Himalayas and explores themes of identity, culture clash, and colonialism.[12][8] It won the 2006 Man Booker Prize and the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction.[2] Desai became the youngest woman to win the Booker Prize at the time, at age 35.[13]

In 2008, Desai was a guest on Private Passions, a biographical music discussion programme hosted by Michael Berkeley on BBC Radio 3.[14] In 2007, she was the featured author at the inaugural Asia House Festival of Cold Literature.[15]

In 2008, the Gates Foundation invited Desai to report on a community of sex workers in the coastal state of Andhra Pradesh. In 2009, she received the Columbia University Medal for Excellence.[16] Desai was awarded a 2013 Berlin Prize fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin.[15][17]

In 2017, Desai said that she had been working for more than a decade on a new book "about power [...] about a young Indian woman out in India and the world".[18] After a break of nearly two decades, her novel, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, was published in 2025 by Hogarth, an imprint of Random House Publishing Group.[19][20][21][22][23] In September 2025, the novel was shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize.[24]

Bibliography

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  • Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard. Faber and Faber. 1998. ISBN 0-571-19336-6.
  • The Inheritance of Loss. Hamish Hamilton. 2006. ISBN 0-241-14348-9.
  • The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny. Hamish Hamilton. 2025. ISBN 9780307700155.

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ "Kiran Desai: Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025". The Booker Prizes. Retrieved 9 August 2026.
  2. 1 2 Italie, Hillel (9 March 2007). "Desai's 'Inheritance' Wins Book Critics Circle Award". ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 9 August 2026.
  3. ↑ "Global Indian Women: Top 20 India-born & globally successful women from business and arts". The Economic Times. 5 January 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  4. 1 2 Snider, Suzanne (Winter 2006–07). "A Proud Inheritance". Columbia Magazine. Retrieved 21 September 2025.
  5. ↑ "Kiran Desai". Britannica. Retrieved 9 August 2026.
  6. ↑ Hill, Taylor (29 September 2025). "Kiran Desai comes back to Square Books for opening day of 'The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny'". The Daily Mississippian. Retrieved 9 August 2026.
  7. ↑ Rao, Bolla Mallikharjuna (October 2015). "The Fictional Art of Kiran Desai: An Evaluation" (PDF). New Academia: An International Journal of English Language, Literature and Literary Theory. 4 (4): 207.
  8. 1 2 "'Human warmth is such an innate part of India'". Rediff. 30 January 2006. Retrieved 9 August 2026.
  9. ↑ "Bold Type: Interview with Kiran Desai". Random House. Archived from the original on 11 August 2011.
  10. ↑ "Hullabaloo In The Guava Orchard". BookBrowse. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
  11. ↑ "Betty Trask Prize". The Society of Authors. Retrieved 9 August 2026.
  12. ↑ Mishra, Pankaj (12 February 2006). "Wounded by the West". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 9 August 2026.
  13. ↑ "Facts & Figures". The Booker Prizes.
  14. ↑ "BBC Radio 3 - Private Passions, Kiran Desai". BBC. 10 August 2008. Retrieved 9 August 2026.
  15. 1 2 "Kiran Desai". The Times of India. 18 March 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2025.
  16. ↑ "Kiran Desai". American Academy in Berlin. Retrieved 14 January 2025.
  17. ↑ "Kiran Desai". American Academy in Berlin. Retrieved 9 August 2026.
  18. ↑ Datta, Sudipta (5 February 2017). "Two alone, two together". The Hindu.
  19. ↑ Italie, Hillel (18 December 2024). "Kiran Desai to publish first novel since 'The Inheritance of Loss' came out nearly 20 years ago". AP News. Retrieved 18 March 2025.
  20. ↑ McBain, Sophie (20 September 2025). "Kiran Desai: 'I never thought it would happen in the US'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 October 2025.
  21. ↑ Mars-Jones, Adam (23 October 2025). "Kebabs are consequential". London Review of Books. Vol. 47, no. 19. ISSN 0260-9592. Retrieved 15 October 2025.
  22. ↑ Jacobs, Alexandra (14 September 2025). "Kiran Desai's Long-Awaited Return Is a Transcendent Triumph". Retrieved 15 October 2025.
  23. ↑ Corrigan, Maureen (3 October 2025). "'The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny' is a terrific, tangled love story". NPR. Retrieved 15 October 2025.
  24. ↑ Creamer, Ella (23 September 2025). "'Brilliantly human': Kiran Desai and David Szalay make Booker prize shortlist". The Guardian.
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