Indian writer Kiran Desai on Tuesday succeeded where her mother failed and became the youngest woman ever to win the Booker Prize, one of the world’s most prestigious literary awards.
Desai, whose mother and fellow writer Anita was three times shortlisted for the Booker, won the 50,000 pound prize at her first attempt for her sweeping novel “The Inheritance of Loss”. She has just turned 35.
“To my mother I owe a debt so profound. This book feels as much hers as as it does mine,” Desai said after accepting her prize.
“It was written in her company and in her wisdom and kindness,” the overwhelmed author said. “I really owe her this book so enormously.”
Chairwoman of the judges Hermione Lee said: “It was a magnificent novel of humane breadth and wisdom, comic tenderness and powerful political acuteness.”
