Kiran Desai, 35, daughter of Anita Desai, has become the youngest woman author to get Man Booker prize.
Chairperson of jury members for the Man Booker prize, Hermione Lee, announced this prize by saying,
I am delighted to tell you that the Man Booker Prize for 2006 for fiction is awarded to Kiran Desai for The Inheritance of Loss. This is a magnificent novel of humane breadth and wisdom, comic tenderness and powerful political acuteness.
The Inheritance of Loss is Desai’s second novel. Desai will get the award with the £50,000 honor.
This is the story about the crucial impact of globalisation on Indian village life. It is set in the north-eastern Himalayas and New York, and is about an embittered old judge who wants to retire in peace. It interweaves his story with that of his orphaned teenage granddaughter, his cook and his dog.
Five other contestants were in the race for the award. Those were- In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar, The Secret River by Kate Grenville, Carry Me Dow by M J Hyland, Mother’s Milk by Edward St Aubyn and The Night Watch by Sarah Waters.
Desai said after the announcement,
I was very conscious of the emotional side of the story. I wrote in every direction, the story of immigrants in New York, my parents, my grandparents, my journey. I was clearly aware of the emotion, darkness, worry and fear that this journey between east and west causes.
