num_pages: 336
description: 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.
language: English
title: The Inheritance of Loss
titlecomplete: The Inheritance of Loss
characters: Jemubhai Patel
genres: Indian Literature, India, Asia, Novels, Historical Fiction, Literature, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Fiction, Book Club
ratings_count: 52026
places: Kalimpong
awards: awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: Booker Prize, awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: Orange Prize
category: Fiction Shortlist, awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: National Book Critics Circle Award
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: Kiriyama Prize
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: Crossword Book Award
category: Popular, awardedAt: 1199174400000
name: Βραβείο Λογοτεχνικής Μετάφρασης ΕΚΕΜΕΛ
category: Αγγλόφωνη Λογοτεχνία, awardedAt: 1199174400000
name: Dublin Literary Award
publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press