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This stunning2 second novel from Desai (Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard3) is set in mid-1980s India, on the cusp of the Nepalese movement for an independent state. Jemubhai Popatlal, a retired4 Cambridge-educated judge, lives in Kalimpong, at the foot of the Himalayas, with his orphaned5 granddaughter, Sai, and his cook. The makeshift family's neighbors include a coterie6 of Anglophiles who might be savvy7 readers of V.S. Naipaul but who are, perhaps, less aware of how fragile their own social standing8 is-at least until a surge of unrest disturbs the region. Jemubhai, with his hunting rifles and English biscuits, becomes an obvious target. Besides threatening their very lives, the revolution also stymies9 the fledgling romance between 16-year-old Sai and her Nepalese tutor, Gyan. The cook's son, Biju, meanwhile, lives miserably10 as an illegal alien in New York. All of these characters struggle with their cultural identity and the forces of modernization11 while trying to maintain their emotional connection to one another. In this alternately comical and contemplative novel, Desai deftly12 shuttles between first and third worlds, illuminating13 the pain of exile, the ambiguities14 of post-colonialism and the blinding desire for a "better life," when one person's wealth means another's poverty.
《失落的遗传》是德塞的第二本小说，描写后殖民时期的印度及同时代的美国。作品主要以持过期签证在美国逗留的非法印度移民的角度进行叙述。包括了一位在英国殖民法规下幸存的老法官、其忠诚的厨子及厨子在纽约打拼的儿子的生活群像。
About Author
Kiran Desai was born in India in 1971, and was educated in India, in England, and the United States. Kiran studied creative writing at Columbia University. She is the author of the critically acclaimed15 Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard and The Inheritance of Loss.
Kiran Desai was named the winner of the ￡50,000 Man Booker Prize for Fiction with The Inheritance of Loss, published by Hamish Hamilton.
出生于印度的35岁女作家姬兰·德赛（Kiran Desai）是布克奖有史以来最年轻的大奖得主，获得了5万英镑的奖金。德赛的获奖作品是其第二部小说《失落的遗产》。她的妈妈安妮塔（Anita Desai）也是成就斐然的作家，曾先后三次进入布克奖决选。
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