The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

I had a new and fun experience of going into my local library clutching my now holy grail of a list of Booker Prize winners, and just trawling around for specific books in a sort of literary treasure hunt.  I pick up the books and head to check them out without judging the cover, reading the blurb or assessing the author.  This is a new way of reading modern books for me and I rather like it, especially as I don’t think I would have picked up this book without the stimulus of this project – and I’m so glad I did! 

The descriptions are sublime and the characters are complex, underpinned by a stimulating structure of crossing between two worlds and back into the past.  The story was set in a period of history I know very little about and it took me most of the book to establish the precise time the novel was dealing with, however, it was nonetheless enlightening.   The personal perspectives of the characters give an insightful view of the 1986 Gorkhaland movement building a well-rounded overview of the situation.  I particularly liked the way the story followed a characters train of thought from the present to past events as ones own mind is apt to do.

The writing is vivid and atmospheric, transporting you to the Himalayas and contrasting the immigrant world of New York.  The conflict between expectations and aspirations of the developing world unrealised by the reality of emigrating was conveyed ably.  A fascinating book written exceptionally well.