Anita Desai’s intricate family drama examines the different ways in which two cultures assuage human hungers, desires and appetites.

Uma, older daughter of a close-knit Indian family, remains in the household of her childhood tending to her parents’ needs. Meanwhile, younger son Arun spends the summer in Massachusetts with the Patton family and their freezer full of meat that nobody seems to wants to eat. Full of wit and sensuality, farce and deep pathos, Anita Desai’s novel cuts right to the heart of family life in two different cultures.

Shortlisted
The Booker Prize 1999
Published by
Chatto & Windus
Publication date
Anita Desai

Anita Desai

About the Author

Anita Desai has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times - 1980, 1984 and in 1999. She was born in Mussoorie, India and is the author of many novels and short stories.
More about Anita Desai

Other nominated books by Anita Desai

In Custody
Clear Light of Day