Kiran Desai

Kiran Desai is one of the most famous Indian authors. She is the daughter of novelist Anita Desai. After spending her early years in Punjab and Mumbai, where she attended Cathedral and John Connon School, Kiran was born in Delhi. At the age of 14, she and her mother left India and spent a year living in England before relocating to the United States. At Columbia University, Hollins University, and Bennington College, Kiran Desai pursued her creative writing studies.

Her book The Inheritance of Loss received both the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award and the Man Booker Prize in 2006. She was named one of the 20 "most influential" Indian women in the world by The Economic Times in January 2015.

Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, Desai's debut book, was released in 1998 and drew praise from people like Salman Rushdie. The Society of Authors' Betty Trask Award, granted to the finest new novels by Commonwealth of Nations residents under the age of 35, was given to it.

The Inheritance of Loss, her second novel, was favorably appreciated by critics in Asia, Europe, and the United States. Both the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award and the 2006 Man Booker Prize went to it. At age 35, Desai became the youngest woman to ever receive the Booker Prize (Eleanor Catton beat this record in 2013).

Born: 1971

Topics aimed at: Young Indian woman out in India and the world