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Youngest ever woman wins Man Booker Prize at age of 35

 

Kiran Desai was tonight (Tuesday 10th October) named the winner of the £50,000

Man Booker Prize for Fiction for The Inheritance of Loss, published by Hamish

Hamilton.

 

The Indian-born writer has a strong family tie with the prize as her mother

Anita Desai has been shortlisted three times since 1980 but has never won. This

year, however, her daughter, Kiran, has won the acclaimed literary prize.

 

Author of the 1998 universally praised Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, Desai is

the first woman to win the Man Booker since 2000 when Margaret Atwood scooped

the prize with The Blind Assassin. Her winning book, The Inheritance of Loss, is

a radiant, funny and moving family saga and has been described by reviewers as

‘the best, sweetest, most delightful novel’.

 

This is the first time that Hamish Hamilton has published a Man Booker Prize

winner although they had two shortlisted authors in 2005.

 

Chair of the judges, Hermione Lee, made the announcement at the awards dinner at

the Guildhall, London, which was broadcast live on the BBC 10 O’ Clock News.

Harvey McGrath, Chairman of Man Group plc, presented Kiran Desai with a cheque

for £50,000.

 

Hermione Lee comments,

 

“We are delighted to announce that the winner of the Man Booker Prize for 2006

is Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss, a magnificent novel of humane

breadth and wisdom, comic tenderness and powerful political acuteness. The

winner was chosen, after a long, passionate and generous debate, from a

shortlist of five other strong and original voices.â€

 

Over and above her prize of £50,000, Kiran Desai is guaranteed a huge increase

in sales and recognition worldwide. Each of the six shortlisted authors,

including the winner, receives £2,500 and a designer-bound edition of their

book.

 

The judging panel for the 2006 Man Booker Prize for Fiction is: Hermione Lee

(Chair), biographer, academic and reviewer; Simon Armitage, poet and novelist;

Candia McWilliam, award-winning novelist; critic Anthony Quinn; and actor Fiona

Shaw.

 

The Winner

 

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

Hamish Hamilton, £16.99

 

‘Kiran Desai is a terrific writer. This book richly fulfils the promise of her

first.’ - Salman Rushdie

 

In the north-eastern Himalayas, at the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga, in an

isolated and crumbling house, there lives an embittered old judge, who wants

nothing more than to retire in peace. But with the arrival of his orphaned

granddaughter, Sai, and the son of his chatty cook trying to stay a step ahead

of US immigration services, this is far from easy.

 

When a Nepalese insurgency threatens the blossoming romance between Sai and her

handsome tutor, they, too, are forced to consider their colliding interests. The

judge must revisit his past, his own journey and his role in this grasping world

of conflicting desires - every moment holding out the possibility for hope or

betrayal.

 

Kiran Desai was born in India on 3rd September 1971 and is currently a student

at Columbia University’s Creative Writing Course. Her first novel Hullabaloo

in the Guava Orchard received accolades from many notable figures and an excerpt

was featured in the New Yorker India Fiction issue, and in Mirrorwork, Salman

Rushdie's controversial anthology of 50 years of Indian writing. It went on to

win the Betty Trask Award.

 

For further information or interview requests, please contact: Amelia Fairney,

Hamish Hamilton on 020 7010 3247; Amelia.fairney.

 

 

 

 

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances,

there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in

such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest

we become unwitting victims of the darkness.

William O. Douglas