The Inheritance of Loss

Set in 1986, Kiran Desai’s novel alternates between two lives. Sai is an orphaned, anglicised girl living in mountainous Kalimpong with her grandfather, a retired judge, along with his cook and a dog named Mutt. Biju, the cook’s son, is living illegally in the United States and trying to make a new life there.

Through them the book shows conflicts within India and tensions between past and present, including both rejection of and awe at the English way of life. Its main themes include migration and living between two worlds.