About this item
Highlights
- Winner of the Betty Trask Award, Kiran Desai's dazzling debut novel is a hilarious story of life, love, and family that tells the surprising and delightful story of a young man's unusual path to fame in a small Northern Indian cityPraised by Salman Rushdie and Junot Diaz, among others, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard was published to great acclaim in 1998, and established Kiran Desai as a vivid literary voice eight years before The Inheritance of Loss won the Man Booker Prize.
- About the Author: Kiran Desai was born in India in 1971.
- 224 Pages
- Fiction + Literature Genres, Literary
Description
Book Synopsis
Winner of the Betty Trask Award, Kiran Desai's dazzling debut novel is a hilarious story of life, love, and family that tells the surprising and delightful story of a young man's unusual path to fame in a small Northern Indian city
Praised by Salman Rushdie and Junot Diaz, among others, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard was published to great acclaim in 1998, and established Kiran Desai as a vivid literary voice eight years before The Inheritance of Loss won the Man Booker Prize. Sampath Chawla was born in a time of drought into a family not quite like other families, in a town not quite like other towns. After years of failure and spending his days dreaming in tea stalls, it does not seem as if Sampath is going to amount to much--until one day he climbs a guava tree in search of peaceful contemplation and becomes unexpectedly famous as a holy man, sending his tiny town into turmoil. A syndicate of larcenous, alcoholic monkeys terrorizes the pilgrims who cluster around Sampath's tree, spies and profiteers descend on the town, and none of Desai's outrageous characters goes unaffected as events spin increasingly out of control.
Review Quotes
Praise for Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard:
Winner of the Betty Trask Award
"Delectable--with this sprightly first novel, Kiran Desai takes her place among the pack of gifted young Indian writers." --Wall Street Journal
"A finely tuned fable that attests to the author's pitch-perfect ear . . . The author delineates [the characters] with such with and bemused affection that they insinuate themselves insidiously in our minds." --Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
"So fresh and funny and delicious that it defies comparison." --The Times (London)
"With remarkably complex characters, unpredictable plot twists and vivid descriptions . . . A spectacularly fresh vision." --Reena Jana, San Francisco Chronicle
"Crackling, witty, sharply visual prose . . . She is a delightfully funny, amiable satirist." --The Atlantic Monthly
"There is so much to admire in this charming book, dainty in its construction but ballasted by real emotion, that to call Desai a young writer of promise would do her a disservice. On this showing she is already a finished article." --The Sunday Telegraph
"A charming, lyrical fable." --Harper's Bazaar
"[Desai's] novel exudes charisma, poetry and joy in language and life. It's a sparkling debut." --Donna Rifkind, The Baltimore Sun
"This is a beguiling novel, fresh and funny and warmhearted." --Roxana Robinson
"Kiran Desai has two remarkable gifts--of comedy and fantasy. Add to this a flair for storytelling and you have the uproarious, whimsical and occasionally stinging Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard." --Bhaswati Chakravorty, The Telegraph Calcutta
"Desai's writing is funny, often hilarious, and richly imaginative." --Globe & Mail
"Desai is a lavish, sharp-eyed fabulist whose send-up of small-town culture cuts to the heart of human perversity." --The New Yorker
"Clearly envisioned and opulently told . . . Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard is as memorable as its title. With it, Desai joins the ranks of Anglo-Indian writers who have energized English literature with their imaginative, complex storytelling." --Tammie Bob, Chicago Tribune
"Lush and intensely imagined. Welcome proof that India's encounter with the English language continues to give birth to new children, endowed with lavish gifts." --Salman Rushdie
"A delicious blend of humor and magic, hilarity and wisdom--and unexpected poetry. Kiran Desai's language will continue to delight you long after the last page." --Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
"With this radiant novel, Kiran Desai parts the waters. Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard evokes a bright, buoyant world, and the warmth and generosity of her writing makes for a joyous debut." --Junot Díaz
"A hullabaloo of a debut from a vibrant, creative imagination." --Gita Mehta
About the Author
Kiran Desai was born in India in 1971. She is the author of the critically acclaimed Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard and the Man Booker Prize winning novel The Inheritance of Loss. Educated in India, England, and the United States, she received her M.F.A. from Columbia University.