Kiran Desai is an Indian author. Her novel The Inheritance of Loss won the 2006 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award.[1][2] In 2015, The Economic Times named her one of 20 most influential global Indian women.[3]
Early life and education
Kiran Desai is the daughter of author Anita Desai.[4] Kiran was born in Delhi, then lived in Punjab and in Mumbai, where she studied at Cathedral and John Connon School.Template:Citation needed
Desai left India at 14, 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.[5]
Literary career
Desai's first novel, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, was published in 1998.[6] It won the Betty Trask Award,[7] a prize given by the Society of Authors for best new novels by citizens of the Commonwealth of Nations under the age of 35.[8]
Her second book, The Inheritance of Loss (2006), was widely praised by critics throughout Asia, Europe, and the United States. It is set in the Himalayas and explores themes of identity, culture clash, and colonialism.[9] It won the 2006 Man Booker Prize and the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award.[2] Desai became the youngest woman to win the Booker Prize at age 35 (a record broken by Eleanor Catton in 2013).[10]
In 2008, Desai was a guest on Private Passions, the biographical music discussion programme hosted by Michael Berkeley on BBC Radio 3.[11] In 2007, she was the featured author at the inaugural Asia House Festival of Cold Literature.[12]
In 2008, the Gates Foundation project invited Desai to report on a community of sex workers in the coastal state of Andhra Pradesh.[13] In 2009, she received the Columbia University Medal for Excellence.[13] Desai was awarded a 2013 Berlin Prize Fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin.[12]
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".[14] 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.[15][16][17][18][19] In September 2025, the novel was shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize.[20]
Bibliography
- Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Faber and Faber(1998). ISBN 0-571-19336-6
- The Inheritance of Loss{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Hamish Hamilton Ltd(2006). ISBN 0-241-14348-9
- The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Hamish Hamilton Ltd(2025). ISBN 9780307700155
See also
References
- ↑ Kiran Desai. The Booker Prize Foundation. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedHillel2007-09-03 - ↑ Global Indian Women: Top 20 India-born & globally successful women from business and arts. The Economic Times(5 January 2015). Retrieved 30 November 2017.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Template:Cite magazine
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedBoldType-interview - ↑ Cite error: Invalid
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<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedchristchurch-lib - ↑ 17 Famous Asian Authors: Immerse Yourself In Asian Culture. becomeawritertoday.com(2023-09-19). Retrieved 2025-01-14.
- ↑ Facts & Figures | The Booker Prizes. thebookerprizes.com(August 2023).
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedprivatepassions - ↑ 12.0 12.1 Kiran Desai. The Times of India(18 March 2020). Retrieved 21 September 2025.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Kiran Desai. American Academy in Berlin. Retrieved 2025-01-14.
- ↑ Two alone, two together. The Hindu(5 February 2017).
- ↑ Kiran Desai to publish first novel since 'The Inheritance of Loss' came out nearly 20 years ago. AP News(2024-12-18). Retrieved 2025-03-18.
- ↑ Kiran Desai: ‘I never thought it would happen in the US’. The Guardian(2025-09-20). Retrieved 2025-10-15.
- ↑ Kebabs are consequential. London Review of Books(2025-10-23). Retrieved 2025-10-15.
- ↑ Kiran Desai’s Long-Awaited Return Is a Transcendent Triumph(2025-09-14). Retrieved 2025-10-15.
- ↑ 'The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny' is a terrific, tangled love story. NPR(2025-10-03). Retrieved 2025-10-15.
- ↑ ‘Brilliantly human’: Kiran Desai and David Szalay make Booker prize shortlist. The Guardian({Template:Date).