Kiran Desai: youngest Booker winner
This is shaping up to be a great fortnight for Indian Women. I blogged recently about Padmasree Warrior and Indra Nooyi as the stalwarts in the leadership arena and today I have just learnt that Kiran Desai, daughter of Anita Desai has won the prestigious Booker prize to become the youngest author ever to win the prize at thirty five beating 111 novels in the fray. Anita Desai, a three time Booker nominee herself must be a very proud mother. Here is how the judges reacted:
It took the five judges just under two hours to reach a unanimous decision. Their chair, academic and biographer Hermione Lee, praised the winner as “a magnificent novel of humane breadth and wisdom, comic tenderness and powerful political acuteness.'' It was the novel's “great depth of humanity'' that raised “The Inheritance of Loss'' above the competition, she said.
On having a Booker nominated mother:
Born in India in 1971, Desai left the country at 15 to study in the U.K. and the U.S. Though she attended Columbia University's creative-writing course, she has clearly learned plenty from her mother, too. “Both have written about Indian characters in the world,'' Lee said. “There's something of Anita Desai's novel `Clear Light of Day' in the beginning of `The Inheritance of Loss.'''
"To my mother, I owe a debt so profound and so great that this book feels as much hers as it does mine," said Desai, dressed in a traditional Indian sari, as she accepted her award. "It was written in her company and in her witness and in her kindness."
A short review of the work:
"The Inheritance of Loss," which took Desai eight years to complete, tells parallel stories set in post colonial India and the United States. In the foothills of the Himalayas, a Cambridge University-educated Indian judge spends his time as a recluse until his orphaned teenage granddaughter comes to stay.Meanwhile his cook's son, who has gone to the United States to seek his fortune, ekes out an existence as an illegal immigrant in New York restaurant kitchens.
I cannot fathom how writers focus for eight years at a stretch. Given the turbulence in life and distractions in general, eight years is a pretty long time. A number of events can shuffle your priorities and modify your perspective on life (even if writing the book were to be your top priority). Sources: ————— sfgate.com bloomberg.com
I am currently under the spell of the Hippie, I am watching, reading and listening to all things mid 60’s and early 70s. I borrowed this book from the library and I am totally engrossed and in awe of the 1965-1971 era, this book is an awesome adaptation of the music, pop culture and consciousness of that era. I regret not being old enough to experience this timeframe, the energy is simply awesome.
