Kiran Desai's first novel, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard , was published to unanimous acclaim in over twenty-two countries. Now Desai takes us to the northeastern Himalayas where a rising insurgency challenges the old way of life. In a crumbling, isolated house at the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga lives an embittered old judge who wants to retire in peace when his orphaned granddaughter Sai arrives on his doorstep. The judge's chatty cook watches over her, but his thoughts are mostly with his son, Biju, hopscotching from one New York restaurant job to another, trying to stay a step ahead of the INS, forced to consider his country's place in the world. When a Nepalese insurgency in the mountains threatens Sai's new-sprung romance with her handsome Nepali tutor and causes their lives to descend into chaos, they, too, are forced to confront their colliding interests. The nation fights itself. The cook witnesses the hierarchy being overturned and discarded. The judge must revisit his past, his own role in this grasping world of conflicting desires-every moment holding out the possibility for hope or betrayal. A novel of depth and emotion, Desai's second, long-awaited novel fulfills the grand promise established by her first.

基兰·德赛，1971年出生于印度，15岁时定居英国，目前是美国哥伦比亚大学写作班的一名学生。德赛的母亲阿妮塔·德赛也是非常知名的作家，她自1980年起就曾三次进入布克奖的总决选名单，可惜从未折桂。阿妮塔曾经劝说女儿不要进入这个行列，理由是写作太难。而女儿最终以自己的成就给予母亲最大的安慰和回报。基兰·德赛的处女作《番石榴园的喧哗》曾受到各方的一致赞誉。2006年她凭借第二部长篇小说《失落》（The Inheritance of Loss，又译为《失落之遗产》）获得布克奖，成为有史以来赢得该奖项的最年轻的女作家。