The Inheritance Of Loss

by Desai, Kiran

Kiran Desai is an Indian author born in 1971. She is a citizen of India and a permanent resident of the United States . This charming, heartwarming novel, The Inheritance of Loss won the Booker Man prize in 2006.

The story is set in the remote province of Kalimpong, India as well as in New York, during the mid-1980’s. The novel is centered on two main characters, Biju and Sai, and is told mainly through the eyes of Sai, a teenage girl whose parents are both dead, and who must return from Russia to India to her embittered maternal grandfather. This entrancing novel describes individuals that are truly human, two intertwined Indian families, one elite and privileged, but living in the quickly fading shadows of colonial India, while the other is poor and servile, but both trying to make sense of the rapidly changing world in which they live.

 

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On Apr 28, 2014, Anonymous said
Loved the writing, hated the story. I just was getting more and more depressed with all the futility, the war, the poverty, the injustice - just the general ugliness of people's behavior. The land is beautiful, much like the writing, but it contains all these gross things like this description of a scorpion, from the families of scorpions living in the kindling in the kitchen, "Once he'd found a mother, plump with poison, fourteen babies on her back." or this description of a snot eating giant spider, "Then, sad to report, he picked some snot balls from his nose and fed them to a giant tiger-striped spider sitting in its web between the table and the wall. It pounced, couldn't believe its luck, and began slowly to eat." And who is giving his snot to the spider? The love interest! Well, he is young and very poor. OK, it is funny right? Yes. But the poverty... and it isn't just the poverty, it is the cruelty of people to each other, all the continued hatred from the beginning of time. Listen to this conversation that takes place between a married couple from India who own a restaurant in NY, after reading the International News in the NY Times, "Imagine if we were sitting around saying, "So-and-so-score years ago, Neanderthals came out of the woods, attacked my family with a big dinosaur bone, and now you give back." Well that is what is being said, you did such and such so I am justified in doing this and that to you. Family against family, tribe against tribe, nation against nation, color against lack of color, rich against poor. ----I just felt like putting my fingers in my ears and telling this book, "I'm not listening!" Here is a paragraph that pretty much epitomizes what this book is about, "But while the residents were shocked by the violence, they were also often surprised by the mundaneness of it all. Discovered the extent of perversity that the heart is capable of as they sat at home with nothing to do, and found that is was possible, faced with the stench of unimaginable evil, for a human being to grow bored, yawn, be absorbed by the problem of a missing sock, by neighborly irritations, to feel hunger skipping like a little mouse inside a tummy and return, once again, to the pressing matter of what to eat....There they were, the most commonplace of them, those quite mis-matched with the larger than-life-questions, caught up in the mythic battles of a past vs. present, justice vs. injustice -- the most ordinary swept up in extraordinary hatred, because extraordinary hatred was, after all, a commonplace event." Depressing, right? So depressing. Saved by the author's very astute observations and her ironic humor.

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Inheritance of Loss, The

Inheritance of Loss, The

by Desai Kiran

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2006
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Hamish Hamilton; Penguin Books. Fair. 6.18 x 1.18 x 9.49 inches. Hardcover. 2006. 336 pages. Ex-library. Cover worn<br>The Inheritance of Loss Desa i, Kiran .
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New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006. First American Edition, 1st Printing. Hardcover. Near fine/near fine. First American Edition, 1st Printing. Hardcover. 2006 Man Booker Prize. Stated First Edition with full number line.
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New York, New York, USA: Grove Press, 2005. Paperback. As New/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7?" - 9?" tall. Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2006. Trade Paperback AS NEW. In an isolated house at the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas lives an embittered judge who wants only to be retired in peace, when his orphaned… Read more about this item
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The Inheritance of Loss : A Novel

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London: Hamish Hamilton. Signed without inscription by the author on the Publisher's bookplate on the title page. Seventh impression. Winner of the Booker Prize for 2006. The unclipped dust jacket is protected by a clear, removable cover. Weysprings Books is a Member of: the IOBA and PBFA, and subscribes to the Associations' Codes of Ethics. . Fine. Hardcover. 1st Edition.… Read more about this item
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New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006. First Edition. Cloth and boards. Fine/Near Fine. 8vo, white quarter cloth with pale gold lettering on spine over white boards, archival mylar-protected pictorial blue-&-white dust jacket (unclipped) designed by Charles Rue Woods, deep blue endpapers, 324 pages. (Kiran Desai (born 1971) is an Indian author and daughter of author Anita Desai. … Read more about this item
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London: Hamish Hamilton, 2006. First edition. Cloth. Fine/Fine. 9.5" by 6". None. A fine, signed, first edition of Kiran Desai's award winning novel, 'The Inheritance of Loss'. A Man Booker winning elucidation of India through two main characters, Biju and Sai. First edition first impression. Signed by the author to the title page. … Read more about this item
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London: Hamish Hamilton, 2006. First edition. Cloth. Fine/Fine. 9.5" by 6". None. A signed first edition of Kiran Desai's Man Booker winning novel looking at India through two main characters, Biju and Sai, in the original unclipped dustwrapper. The first edition, first impression of this work. Signed by the author to the title page. … Read more about this item
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New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006. First edition, first printing (full number line). Hardcover. A fine bright copy , in a fine DJ. Octavo in a blue DJ ; 324 p ; 24 cm. Psychological fiction -- India -- Novel.
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The Inheritance of Loss: A Novel (Man Booker Prize)

The Inheritance of Loss: A Novel (Man Booker Prize)

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Hamish Hamilton, 2006. Hardcover. Fine. A first edition, first printing published by Hamish hamilton in 2006. Rare signed copy of this winner of the Booker Prize. True first printing of the UK first edition. Signed on the title page by Desai. The book is fine with no marks, inscriptions or faults. The wrapper is NOT price clipped. This… Read more about this item
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Inheritance of Loss, The

Inheritance of Loss, The

by Desai, Kiran

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New York, NY, USA: Grove Press, 2006. Book. Good. Soft cover. Reprint. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Medium softcover, reprint, 362gms, 356 pages. Winner of the Man Booker Prize. Book is in good condition with minor general wear and tear and moderate page discolouration/spotting throughout. Wraps show some mild creasing to corners and edges. There is a small… Read more about this item
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The Inheritance of Loss : A Novel

The Inheritance of Loss : A Novel

by Desai, Kiran

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London: Hamish Hamilton. Fourth printing. No faults to record; no inscriptions, dust jacket not price-clipped. Winner of the 2006 Booker Prize. Weysprings Books is a Member of: the IOBA and PBFA, and subscribes to the Associations' Codes of Ethics. . As New. Hardcover. First UK Edition, First Printing. 2006.
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THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS - SIGNED

THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS - SIGNED

by Desai, Kiran

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London: Hamish Hamilton, 2006. First UK edition. The author's second novel, winner of the Man-Booker Prize in 2006. First Impression. Octavo; dark brown paper-covered boards, with titles stamped in silver on spine; dustjacket; 324pp, [2]. Signed by the author on the title page. Fine in a Fine, unclipped dustjacket.
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The Inheritance of Loss

The Inheritance of Loss

by Desai, Kiran

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The Inheritance of Loss: A Novel (Man Booker Prize)

The Inheritance of Loss: A Novel (Man Booker Prize)

by Desai, Kiran

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THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS

THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS

by Desai, Kiran

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New York City, NY: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 324 pages. The author's breakthrough second novel. One of the finest novels of our time. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other… Read more about this item
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