The Inheritance of Loss is author Kiran Desai's second novel, published in 2006 by Atlantic Monthly Press and Hamish Hamilton. The Inheritance of Loss won numerous accolades, including the 2006 Booker Prize, the 2006 Vodafone Crossword Book Award, and the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction.
The novel explores the intergenerational impact of colonialism on a diverse cast of characters against the historical backdrop of the 1986 Gorkhaland Movement in Darjeeling. Told through an omniscient third-person perspective, The Inheritance of Loss follows Biju, an illegal immigrant attempting to survive in New York City, and Sai, an orphan living with her Anglicized and abusive grandfather in the isolated Himalayan village of Kalimpong.
Critics praised Desai's artful exploration of complex themes like multiculturalism, intergenerational trauma, and post-colonialism. In 2020, Emma Lee-Potter of The Independent named The Inheritance of Loss one of the 12 best Indian novels "everyone needs to read."
