Pasadena Event: Kiran Desai at Vroman's

Following on the heels of our February discussion -- coming to Vroman's Bookstore next month! Friday, April 6, 2007 7:00 PM, Kiran Desai discusses and signs The Inheritance of Loss.

Kiran Desai Interviews

Continuing with our exploration of Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss, here are some links to interviews:

Kiran Desai shares time with her mother, novelist Anita Desai on NPR's Fresh Air.

A short interview at the National Book Critics Circle blog.

A Guardian interview and another report on negative reaction to the book in Kalimpong.

Journey to North India

The imagery in Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss is vivid enough without visual aids, but just for fun, check out this 'North India and Sikkim' slideshow from photographer Matt Reichel.

... We'd emerge to the tops of monasteries limpet to the sides of the rock, surrounded by chortens and prayer flags, the white facades catching the light of the sunset, all straw gold, the mountains rugged lines of indigo... Buddhism was ancient here, more ancient than it was anywhere else, and we went to a monastery that had been built, they said, when a flying lama had flown from one mountaintop to another, from Menak Hill to Enchey, and another that had been built when a rainbow connected Kanchenjunga to the crest of the hill. Often gompas were deserted because the monks were also farmers; they were away at their fields and gathered only a few times a year for pujas and all you could hear was the wind in the bamboo. Clouds cam through the doors and mingled with the paintings of the clouds. The interiors were dark, smoke-stained, and we'd try to make out the murals by the light of butter lamps... (page 169)

Our February Author: Kiran Desai

I'm not far enough along with our February selection, The Inheritance of Loss, yet to be reading interviews, but here is the author giving a short (2 minute) introduction to her own work:

For February: The Inheritance of Loss

For February we have selected Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss:

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.

Booker Prize

We came close to choosing Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss for January.  Now the book has won the Booker Prize.  I'd say the book will be up for reconsideration soon!