Kiran Desai

Kiran Desai (India)

Born in India in 1971 and educated in India, England, and the United States. She received the 2006 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for her novel The Inher­itance of Loss, which was also shortlisted for the Orange Prize. Her debut novel, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, received the Betty Trask Award. Both novels were also published in Hebrew. She now lives in New York.

The novelists Anita Desai and her daughter Kiran Desai are staying in Mishkenot Sha’ananim throughout May as part of the Marie Residency. The Marie Residency is a tribute to the life of Marie Brandolini (7.04.1963-30.05.2013), the daughter of Béatrice Rosenberg de Rothschild. Marie was an accomplished artist, well known as a glass designer working in Murano. Her love and appreciation for literature crossed genres and cultures distinctions. Marie made her home in Venice, but visited Jerusalem and appreciated its importance to her family. The Marie Residency brings a writer to these two cities for an extended period – with time to work, give public lectures, and experience each city. Anita and Kiran Desai are the first writers participating in the program.