The Inheritance of Loss

De: Kiran Desai

Narrado por: Meera Simhan

Kiran Desai's first novel, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, was published to unanimous acclaim in over twenty-two countries. Now Desai takes us to the northeastern Himalayas where a rising insurgency challenges the old way of life.

In a crumbling, isolated house at the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga lives an embittered old judge who wants to retire in peace when his orphaned granddaughter Sai arrives on his doorstep. The judge's chatty cook watches over her, but his thoughts are mostly with his son, Biju, hopscotching from one New York restaurant job to another, trying to stay a step ahead of the INS, forced to consider his country's place in the world.

When a Nepalese insurgency in the mountains threatens Sai's new-sprung romance with her handsome Nepali tutor and causes their lives to descend into chaos, they, too, are forced to confront their colliding interests. The nation fights itself. The cook witnesses the hierarchy being overturned and discarded. The judge must revisit his past, his own role in this grasping world of conflicting desires—every moment holding out the possibility for hope or betrayal. A novel of depth and emotion, Desai's long-awaited second novel fulfills the grand promise established by her first.

©2007 Kiran Desai (P)2024 Random House Audio

Brilliant book. Outstanding Performance.

The writing is beautiful, searingly intelligent, tender, wise and honest. The reader is unimaginably gifted. She conjures each character vividly and convincingly. I had to rewind and listen to parts of the book to make sure I had gotten it all. Doing so was like listening to well made music. It wasn’t a burden to listen to something twice. It was a deeper immersion into dazzling sound.

Horrific descriptions

This book, while having its merits and telling us a lot about Indian culture is riddled with horrific descriptions, unnecessarily, graphic, horrible pictures and honestly it’s not that good.