The Inheritance of Loss
ByPublisher Description
Winner of the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award, Kiran Desai’s extraordinary novel of love and loss, now reissued with a new introduction by the author
Published to astonishing acclaim, The Inheritance of Loss heralds Kiran Desai as one of our most insightful novelists. In a crumbling, isolated house at the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas, an embittered judge wants only to retire in peace when his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, arrives on his doorstep. The judge’s cook watches over her distractedly, but his thoughts are usually on his son, Biju, who is hopscotching from one gritty New York restaurant to another. As her characters’ lives overlap and intertwine, Kiran Desai’s brilliant novel illuminates a story of joy and despair, as well as the pain of exile and the ambiguities of postcolonialism.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe Inheritance of Loss Reviews
putsalreads
Created 7 days ago
“Oh wow, what a sad and striking story about the lasting impact of empire and what comes after. It captures the illusion of the American dream while showing the difficult truth underneath. We follow Sai, the Judge, Gyan, the Cook, and Biju, each carrying their own wounds, hopes, and quiet longing.
What I love most is how the novel reaches beyond its main theme to explore inequality, privilege, and how social hierarchies shape people’s choices and emotions. The characters aren’t just victims of their circumstances — they still try to navigate, resist, and find meaning in small ways.
The moment when Biju returns is especially moving. He comes back disillusioned yet still searching for belonging. That ending stays with you — a reminder of how migration, memory, and identity are all tied up in loss.”RJKid
Created 10 days agoLeigh-Cayla
Created 14 days agoQughes Clement no. 13
Created 15 days agolianaseini
Created 18 days agoAbout Kiran Desai
Kiran Desai was born in India in 1971. She is the author of the critically acclaimed Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard and the Man Booker Prize winning novel The Inheritance of Loss. Educated in India, England, and the United States, she received her M.F.A. from Columbia University.
Other books by Kiran Desai
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