Kiran Desai is a distinguished writer, was born on 3rd September 1971. She is basically from Chandigarh, daughter of a famous writer Anita Desai. Desai grew up speaking German, Hindi, and English. She received a B. A. in English from the University of Delhi in 1957. Kiran Desai has a vast travelling experience in her childhood. From Chandigarh she went to Pune and then to Mumbai and again back to Delhi. Later during her teens she moved to England and then to USA where she has settled with her mother. Her mother’s influence of writing is great upon her as we see that she had joined an Institute of Technology to become a scientist, but left as bent of mind was inclined for writing. The suppression and oppression of Indian women were the subjects of her first novel, Cry, the Peacock (1963).

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Man Booker Prize: An “extraordinary” novel “lit by a moral intelligence at once fierce and tender” (The New York Times Book Review). In a crumbling, isolated house at the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas, an embittered old judge wants only to retire in peace. But his life is upended when his sixteen-year-old orphaned granddaughter, Sai, arrives on his doorstep. The judge’s chatty cook watches over the girl, but his thoughts are mostly with his son, Biju, hopscotching from one miserable New York restaurant job to another, trying to stay a step ahead of the INS. When a Nepalese insurgency threatens Sai’s new-sprung romance with her tutor, the household descends into chaos. The cook witnesses India’s hierarchy being overturned and discarded. The judge revisits his past and his role in Sai and Biju’s intertwining lives. In a grasping world of colliding interests and conflicting desires, every moment holds out the possibility for hope or betrayal. Published to extraordinary acclaim, The Inheritance of Loss heralds Kiran Desai as one of our most insightful novelists. She illuminates the pain of exile and the ambiguities of postcolonialism with a tapestry of colorful characters and “uncannily beautiful” prose (O: The Oprah Magazine). “A book about tradition and modernity, the past and the future—and about the surprising ways both amusing and sorrowful, in which they all connect.” —The Independent

Winner of the Betty Trask Award, Kiran Desai's dazzling debut novel is a hilarious story of life, love, and family that tells the surprising and delightful story of a young man's unusual path to fame in a small Northern Indian city Praised by Salman Rushdie and Junot Diaz, among others, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard was published to great acclaim in 1998, and established Kiran Desai as a vivid literary voice eight years before The Inheritance of Loss won the Man Booker Prize. Sampath Chawla was born in a time of drought into a family not quite like other families, in a town not quite like other towns. After years of failure and spending his days dreaming in tea stalls, it does not seem as if Sampath is going to amount to much--until one day he climbs a guava tree in search of peaceful contemplation and becomes unexpectedly famous as a holy man, sending his tiny town into turmoil. A syndicate of larcenous, alcoholic monkeys terrorizes the pilgrims who cluster around Sampath's tree, spies and profiteers descend on the town, and none of Desai's outrageous characters goes unaffected as events spin increasingly out of control.

One of Entertainment Weekly’s Ten Best Books of the Year: “A magical novel that even cynics will close with a smile” (People). Everyone in Emlyn Springs, Nebraska, knows the story of Hope Jones, who was lost in the tornado of 1978. Her three young children found some stability in their father, a preoccupied doctor, and in their mother’s spitfire best friend—but nothing could make up for the loss of Hope. Larken, the eldest, is now an art history professor who seeks in food an answer to a less tangible hunger. Gaelan, the son, is a telegenic weatherman who devotes his life to predicting the unpredictable. And the youngest, Bonnie, is a self-proclaimed archivist who combs roadsides for clues to her mother’s legacy, and permission to move on. When they’re summoned home after their father’s sudden death, each sibling is forced to revisit the childhood event that has defined their lives. With lyricism, wisdom, and humor, this novel by the national bestselling author of Broken for You explores the consequences of protecting those we love. Sing Them Home is a magnificent tapestry of lives connected and undone by tragedy, lives poised—unbeknownst to the characters—for redemption. “Comparisons to John Irving and Tennessee Williams would not be amiss in this show-stopping debut.” —KirkusReviews, starred review “Sing Them Home constantly surprises . . . A big cast of vividly portrayed characters.” —TheBoston Globe “Fans of Ann Patchett and Haven Kimmel should dive onto the sofa one wintry weekend with Stephanie Kallos’ wonderfully transportive second novel.” —Entertainment Weekly

In this sensitive portrayal of human nature, Anita Desai, one of India’s foremost writers, paints an intimate portrait of lives impacted by the quest for identity and purpose. Deven, a Hindi lecturer in small-town Mirpore, lives a humdrum existence. A chance to interview Nur—India’s greatest living Urdu poet—offers him an escape from his dreary life. But the Nur he meets is an enfeebled man, surrounded by clashing wives and preying sycophants. Deven’s decision to be the custodian of Nur’s verse gives birth to an unusual alliance between the two. Stimulating and thought provoking, In Custody is a brilliant parable lamenting the gradual corrosion of culture and tradition in the face of modernity, and a dazzling study of the complexity of human relationships.

“An almost perfect novel” of yearning, adventure, and redemption in the dying days of the Old West from the bestselling author of Peace Like a River (St. Louis Post-Dispatch). Minnesota, 1915. With success long behind him, writer, husband, and father Monte Becket has lost his sense of purpose . . . until he befriends outlaw Glendon Hale. Plagued by guilt over abandoning his wife two decades ago, Hale is heading back West in search of absolution. And he could use some company on the journey. As the modern age marches swiftly forward, Becket agrees to travel into Hale’s past, leaving behind his own family for an adventure that will test the depth of his loyalties and morals, and the strength of his resolve. As they flee the relentless former Pinkerton Detective who’s been hunting Hale for years, Becket falls ever further into the life of an outlaw—perhaps to the point of no return. With its smooth mix of romanticism and gritty reality, So Brave, Young, and Handsome examines one ordinary man’s determination to risk everything in order to understand what it’s all worth, in “an old-fashioned, swashbuckling, heroic Western . . . [An] adventure of the heart and mind (The Washington Post Book World).

In Brooklyn, in the Age of Disco, Valentine Kessler -- a sweet Jewish girl who bears a remarkable resemblance to the Virgin Mary of Lourdes -- has an unerring gift for shattering the dreams and hopes of those who love her. Miriam, her long-suffering mother, betrayed and anguished by the husband she adores, seeks solace in daily games of mah-jongg with The Girls, a cross between a Greek Chorus and Brooklyn's rendition of the Three Wise Men, who dispense advice, predictions, and care in the form of poppy-seed cake and apple strudels. When her greatest fear for Valentine is realized, Miriam takes comfort in the thought that it couldn't get any worse. And then it does. Sagacious, sorrowful, and hilarious, An Almost Perfect Moment is a novel about mothers and daughters, star-crossed lovers, doctrines of the divine, and a colorful Jewish community that once defined Brooklyn. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.