So we have now Desai after the delectable Arundhati Roy - the youngest woman to have won Britain's own version of the Novel prize for literature.

Congratulations are in order!

Look forward to knowing more about Sai's Nepali rebel lover!

Read on: http://books.guardian.co.uk/manbooker2006/story/0,,1892438,00.html

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First-timer beats the odds to take Booker prize that eluded her mother

• Desai's daughter says 'it's her book as much as mine'
• Judge hails east-west novel's humane breadth

John Ezard
Wednesday October 11, 2006
The Guardian
The Indian-born novelist Kiran Desai triumphed last night by winning the £50,000 Man Booker prize with her second novel, The Inheritance of Loss, a story replete with sadness over globalisation and with pleasure at the surviving intimacies of Indian village life.
She beat the bookies, who put her fifth out of six in the award shortlist, rating her as a 5/1 outsider, compared with odds of 6-4 on Sarah Waters' The Night Watch, the favourite.
At her first attempt Desai, 35, not only became the youngest woman to win but achieved a victory which repeatedly eluded her mother. The esteemed Indian novelist Anita Desai - to whom The Inheritance of Loss is dedicated - has been shortlisted three times for the Man Booker.
On hearing the result Desai said: "The debt I owe to my mother is so profound that I feel the book is hers as much as mine. It was written in her company and in her wisdom and kindness."
This year's head judge, Hermione Lee, left no doubt that it was "the strength of the book's humanity" which gave it the edge after a long and passionate debate among the judges. "It is a magnificent novel of humane breadth and wisdom, comic tenderness and powerful political acuteness," Professor Lee said. "Her mother will be proud of her."
John Sutherland, chairman of last year's Man Booker judges and author of How to Read a Novel, said: "Desai's novel registers the multicultural reverberations of the new millennium with the sensitive instrumentality of fiction, as Jhabvala and Rushdie did previous eras ... It is a globalised novel for a globalised world."
But, he said, his favourite on the shortlist was Edward St Aubyn's Mother's Milk.
Rodney Troubridge, buyer for the bookshop chain Waterstone's, said Desai's win "continues the fine tradition of Booker winners set in India, such as Heat and Dust, Staying On, The God of Small Things, and Midnight's Children. It's a great winner".
Desai spent seven years writing the novel. The loss in her title is chiefly the loss of faith in India felt among the legions who overstay tourist visas and become illegal immigrants in the US. Her story counterpoints the lives of an embittered old judge, a survivor of British colonial rule, with those of his loyal cook and the cook's son, one of the immigrants who scrabbles for subsistence on developing world pay in New York.
Desai has said in interviews that her title "speaks of little failures, passed down from generation to generation.
"The novel tries to capture what it means to live between east and west. It explores what happens when a western element is introduced into a country that is not of the west, which is what happened, of course, during colonial times and is happening again with India's new relationship with the States."
Announcing the longlist of 19 books on August 14, Prof Lee said: "It's a list in which famous established novelists rub shoulders with little known newcomers."
On September 14, when the shortlist of six titles was published, it became evident that she and her fellow-judges had done something rare in the 38-year annals of Booker: they had dumped the famous writers and picked mainly little-known newcomers.
Hisham Matar (with his first novel, In The Kingdom of Men), Desai, and MJ Hyland (with her second novel Carry Me Down) sprang from almost nowhere to be strong contenders for the world's foremost literary award. Out went Peter Carey, a previous double Booker laureate, his chance of a third title for Theft: A Love Story destroyed. Discarded too was the bookies' favourite, David Mitchell, with his fourth novel Black Swan Green.
But the publishing market treats novelists as promotable contenders with their first and second books, mature talents by their third, and burned out with their fourth and subsequent titles. This year's passed-over favourite, The Night Watch, was a fourth novel.
Few of those who have read all the titles disagree that the relative newcomers Matar, Desai, Hyland, and St Aubyn were sound choices. The question left by the contest is whether new talent is in danger of being overexposed too soon.
The other shortlisted novelist was Kate Grenville for The Secret River.
Apart from Prof Lee, Goldsmiths' professor of English literature and Fellow of New College, Oxford, the judges were: Simon Armitage, poet and novelist; Candia McWilliam, novelist and former winner of the Guardian fiction prize; the critic Anthony Quinn; and the actor Fiona Shaw.

Sai is Desai's protagonist in the novel btw.

Finally a mother's dream comes true through her daughter's writing and accolade...Kudos to Kiran Desai! Looking forward to reading "The Inheritance of Loss"...btw how's "Carry Me Down?" ...From the look of it, both the novels should be a delightful read..

Happy reading! :)

लाहुरे दाइकस्तो मत मिलेको मैले केहि समय अगाडि मात्र उसको वायोग्राफ पढेको थिए, उ सेलेक्ट भएको कुरा बिबिस साउथ एसिया मा पढेको पछि ।


जे भए पनि राम्रो लिन्क भएका ले राख्दैछु याँहा :
http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/0599/desai/interview.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6038418.stm

Yeah!! I was hoping she would win. Not that I am her biggest fan, but coz for a change, Indian (or anglo indian) writer is using a Nepali character. Not just as someone who opens the door, but a real human being with multidimensional character. We know that Nepalis in India are a big part of the culture and to go for centuries without any considerable mention is shameful. Its like Indians writers not writing about Pakistanis or Bangladeshis. Ignoring a section of the society or lifestyle in the country's literature is unacceptable. Its like Gunter Grass 'forgetting' to mention Nazis. Anyway, I am glad she won.
I would be interested in hearing what you thought of the book, if any one here has read it already.

Sajhabasaima,
Thanks for the link.

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Here is one more on Desai from Times.
Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,923-2396311,00.html

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Out of India, a daughter claims her inheritance
By Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent
Read reviews of the shortlisted books. Plus, Erica Wagner's view: Never a dull moment







Kiran Desai, 35, eclipsed bestsellers and veterans along the way to become the youngest woman to win the coveted prize (Gill Allen)


KIRAN DESAI, the Indian-born writer, last night became the youngest woman to win the Man Booker Prize — the literary award that had eluded her mother on three occasions.
The 35-year-old author was presented with the £50,000 prize in London yesterday after it was announced that her second novel, The Inheritance of Loss, had eclipsed the works of five other shortlisted authors.



Desai, who lived in England as a teenager for a year before moving to America, where she is a student on Columbia University’s creative writing course, had dedicated The Inheritance of Loss with the words: “My mother, with so much love.”
The novel, which took eight years to write, draws on Desai’s experience of leaving India. The emotions sparked by being uprooted and transplanted are recurring themes within a story of an embittered retired judge living in the Himalayas.
Last night, after a session that lasted two hours, the panel chose Desai’s novel. Accepting her award, Desai said: “I didn’t expect to win. I don’t have a speech. My mother told me I must wear a sari . . . a family heirloom, but it’s completely transparent!” After thanking her publisher, editor and agent, she added: “I’m Indian and so I’m going to thank my parents.”
Of her mother, Anita Desai, 69, she said: “I owe a debt so profound and so great that this book feels as much hers as it is does mine. It was written in her company and in her wisdom and kindness in cold winters in her house . . . One minute isn’t enough to convey it.”
Later she said that she had yet to break the news to her mother that she had won the prize. “I think she was so worried on my behalf. She gave me lots of advice and then went to her brother in a Tibetan refuge centre where there is no phone and no TV. She’s probably sleeping very peacefully.”
Novels by Anita Desai reached the Booker shortlist in 1980, 1984 and 1999. Asked how her mother had felt about not winning the Booker herself, her daughter said: “She wasn’t sad at all. She is very calm and strong. She told me, ‘Everyone around you will be excited and nervous . . . You just write your next book no matter what happens’.”
The bookmakers had initially dismissed Kiran Desai as the 7/1 outsider. The judges — the poet and novelist Simon Armitage, the novelist Candia McWilliam, the critic Anthony Quinn and the actress Fiona Shaw — felt differently.
Hermione Lee, chairwoman of the judges and Goldsmiths’ Professor of English Literature at Oxford, said: “This is a magnificent novel of humane breadth and wisdom, comic tenderness and powerful political acuteness.” The winner was not a “compromise” choice. “We so much admired all these novels.”
The achievement was the more extraordinary given that Peter Carey, the Australian bestselling novelist, had been tipped to win for a third time. Desai also eclipsed the veteran South African Nadine Gordimer and established British writers. From a total of 112 entries, the judges went for six authors yet to become household names.
Rodney Troubridge, of Waterstone’s, said that Desai’s book “continues the fine tradition of Booker winners set in India. Kiran Desai’s wonderful novel will be snapped up by Waterstone’s customers.”
Others had mixed feelings. John Sutherland, chairman of last year’s Booker judges, said: “It is a really good novel but it needs a going-over by a good editor. The novel needs control.”
But the award is sure to bring her book success. Sales of last year’s winner, John Banville’s The Sea, have topped a quarter of a million.

I started reading the book, got bored and put it away after reading first few chapters. Maybe I should give it a second look. Booker prize, huh?

BTW, her portrayal of Nepalis is not that flattering. Perhaps, I am too biased.

Av, I bet they are fun reading! Anticipating to shop around the book stores today, want to join? :-)

Btw what about "Ignited Minds"?

I am not into novels. i don't read books apart from my freakin' coursebooks. damn! who's got time? :P

but, after going through the reviews, i must say, Kiran Desai truly epitomizes women of 21st century. her persistence, perseverance and courage itself is worth a novel. kudos to you lady! you go!

LooTe

Flippu...good to see you here on a gloomy day like today..so "Como vai você?" thats how are you in Portuguese for you...got a Brazilian friend at work who's become my teacher for his native tongue....

I wish I could accompany u to the bookstore...been contemplating that since morning as its the same inside as the weather outside....Dark, cloudy and SLOW! anyway, trying to gather more names to qualify for "Amazon's super saver shipping!".. :-)

While you are at it, try Rohinton Mistry's "A Fine Balance," Jose Saramago's "Blindness," Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "Hundred Years of Solitude" (Uni Library has this in its collection)......the list goes on and on...

As I said, Happy Reading!! Te Ve Jo Mais Tarde (see you later...tata)

Yes, Hundred Years of Solitude is in my list. You prolly do remember me mentioning it a year back, it's still in pending! Yes, I do want something different to read other than my course books. Feel like I've inclined more towards emotionless themes within the past few weeks! Need a 'RFRESHNER' :-D

Av, try looking for "Into thin air" by Jon Krakauer. Rest, later!

See, Bostongirl was not recommending this book for non' !!

You go girl!!! (but where?????)

Hehehe

Thank you TM!! Have we all of sudden developed a mutual fan club for each other?? :-)
And....did I recommend this book to you? I remember suggesting my favorite list (including this one) to one of the fellow poster, was it you? Or you happened to be around at that time?

Yeah you could say that " Fan club for each other". I like it your way.
:)
I happened to be a bystander eliciting a word or two on that thread the thread-poster was somebody else.

Good memory!

Thanks! :)

why Desai won the Booker prize? the truth revealed

the five judges are pro-hunting, tea sipping rich aristocrats (or wannabe aristocrats) who r obssesed with their colonial past. the book reminds them of their glorious times when they used to rule the world.

such an easy job to choose the winner, no contest

Go easy on the judges disco dancer. Just because their forefathers were colonizing India, it doesnt make them automatically pick an Indian writer. Besides, how can you say their forefathers....do you know if their forefathers, lets say grandfathers were really colonolizing India?
If you don't trust the judges to make a sound literary decision, then you should say you dont believe in Booker Prize. Here you are saying you dont like the fact that they picked Kiran and you think its because it reminded them of the glorious past. It wasnt glorious for all, and they havent picked every Indian writer nominated just coz they think of their past. Why did they pass Anita Desai? Each and every Salman Rushdie's books? I am just asking.....

And about your 'tea sipping, british aristocrat' comments, Not all british drink tea or are aristocratic.