Wednesday, October 11, 2006

2006 Booker Prize for Fiction

INDIA-BORN KIRAN DESAI, a daughter of the Diaspora, has won the 2006 Booker Prize for Fiction with her second novel, The Inheritance of Loss (2006), an intelligent crosscultural novel that delves into such issues as “identity, displacement and the indissoluble bonds of family.” With this accolade, she has become, at 35, the youngest women ever to have won the prize since its inception in 1969. (The youngest ever winner was of course Ben Okri who landed the Booker Prize for The Famished Road in 1991 at the age of 32.) Congratulations!

If you’ve enjoyed Kiran Desai’s modest début, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard (1998), a whimsical yet poignant Indian parable of love, life and family that blends folkloric magic with satirical comedy and written in prose “lush and intensely imagined,” you are in for another enchanting treat. In her long-awaited second novel, The Inheritance of Loss, Desai sets her story of love, life and family against the backdrop of a rising insurgency in the northeastern Himalayas.

Bibliography
DESAI Kiran [1971-] Novelist; daughter of novelist Anita Desai. Born in Chandigarh, India. Novels The Inheritance of Loss (2006: winner of the 2006 Booker Prize for Fiction); Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard (1998: winner of the 1998 Betty Trask Prize for Best First Novel)

Shortlisted authors: Hisham Matar, Kate Grenville, M.J. Hyland, Kiran Desai, Sarah Waters and Edward St. Aubyn

2 Comments:

Blogger Ted Mahsun said...

Wow! That was quick!

Have heard lots of wonderful stuff about Inheritance of Loss and will be looking forward to reading it soon. Congratulations to Ms Desai! (Too bad Hisham Matar lost, but ah well.)

Tuesday, October 10, 2006 3:40:00 PM  
Blogger Eric Forbes said...

A very deserving winner we have in Kiran Desai. Bookshops - go stock up on Desais. They are going to sell like hotcakes.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006 5:18:00 PM  

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