Bøger af Anita Desai

The Village by the Sea is a survival story by the novelist Anita Desai. Set in a small fishing villlage near Bombay, Lila and Hari, aged 13 and 12, struggle to keep the family, including two young sisters, going when their mother is ill and their father usually the worse for drink. When Hari goes to Bombay to find work, Lila seems to be responsible for everything. Although the book paints a picture of extreme poverty, it demonstrates the strength of the family even in the most extreme circumstances and offers a powerful picture of another culture.Reissued in 'A Puffin Book' series of Puffin modern classics, The Village by the Sea continues to engage young readers of 8+.

A government official who is inspecting a faded mansion of forgotten treasures, comes across the final, shocking gift which is bleeding the museum dry.

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize: A "rich, Chekhovian novel" about family and forgiveness from the acclaimed author of Fire on the Mountain (The New Yorker). At the heart of this wonderful novel are the moving relationships between the estranged members of the Das family. Bimla is a dissatisfied but ambitious teacher at a women's college who lives in her childhood home, where she cares for her mentally challenged brother, Baba. Tara is her younger, unambitious sister, married and with children of her own. Raja is their popular, brilliant, and successful brother. When Tara returns for a visit with Bimla and Baba, old memories and tensions resurface, blending into a domestic drama that leads to beautiful and profound moments of self-understanding.Set in the vividly portrayed environs of Old Delhi, "Clear Light of Day does what only the very best novels can do: it totally submerges us. It also takes us so deeply into another world that we almost fear we won't be able to climb out again" (New York Times Book Review).

Hailed as “unsparing, yet tender and funny,” Fasting, Feasting is a “splendid novel” about siblings and their very different lives in India and America. (The Wall Street Journal)Fasting, Feasting tells the moving story of Uma, the plain older daughter of an Indian family, tied to the household of her childhood and tending to her parents' every extravagant demand, and of her younger brother, Arun, across the world in Massachusetts, bewildered by his new life in college and the suburbs, where he lives with the Patton family. Beautifully written and bleakly comedic, Fasting, Feasting explores family dynamics in opposing cultures. Desai has a gift for conveying “the tangled complexities of Indian tradition with an economy of language that is clean, simple and elegantly straightforward." (The Denver Post)

The fight against childhood malnutrition is a world problem, but there is hope in the form of programs that give undernourished kids more power. This good cause, which comes from caring about others and wanting a better future, is based on the idea that combining healthy food with education can greatly improve the nutrition of young, vulnerable people.The idea of "enriched food" is at the heart of this project. Scientifically made and healthily enhanced, this special food is more than just a source of calories. Food supplements are lifelines for kids who aren't getting enough to eat because they contain important vitamins, minerals, and fats that are needed for their physical and mental growth. These kinds of well-balanced meals not only satisfy instant hunger, but they also help break the cycle of malnutrition, making sure that these kids grow up to be healthy, capable adults.Along with this nutritional strategy is education, which gives people power. Education changes people's lives and the places they live in. For children who aren't getting enough food, schooling is very important for making them aware of good nutrition and teaching them healthy habits. It's not just traditional subjects that are taught in schools and other educational institutions; kids and their families can also learn about the importance of healthy eating, good hygiene, and general wellness. Children learn how to make healthy food choices through hands-on activities, workshops, and interactive sessions. This gives them the power to take care of their own health.This whole-person method doesn't stop in the classroom or at the dinner table; it spreads through whole neighborhoods and encourages a culture of health and well-being. Being an involved participant means that families learn with their kids and reinforce good habits in the home. People feel more in control, which breaks the chains of poverty and ignorance and opens the door to a future where every child is not only fed but also taught.Basically, the project to give undernourished kids more power by giving them better food and schooling is proof of how compassion and knowledge can change things. It is a promise of a better tomorrow where every kid, no matter what their situation is, has the chance to do well. Many people, including governments, non-profits, groups, and individuals, are working together on this project to change the future for future generations. If these programs keep going strong, they will help make the world a place where no child goes to bed hungry, no child misses school, and every child grows up strong enough to reach their goals.

In The Zigzag Way, the critically acclaimed novelist Anita Desai offers a gorgeously nuanced story of expatriates and travelers adrift in an unfamiliar land. Eric, a young American historian, has come to Mexico on his first trip abroad. His search for his immigrant family’s roots brings him to a town in the Sierrra Madre, where a hundred years earlier Cornish miners toiled without relief. Here the suspiciously enigmatic Dona Vera, the fierce Austrian widow of a mining baron, has become a local legend, but her reputation for philanthropy glosses over a darker history. A haunting, powerful novel that culminates on the Day of the Dead, The Zigzag Way examines the subtle interplay between past and present.Anita Desai is the author of many acclaimed works of fiction, including Baumgartner’s Bombay, Clear Light of Day, Diamond Dust, and Fasting, Feasting, among other works. Three of her novels have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. A professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she now lives in New York.

A perceptive observation about the human race cleverly constructed and told with Desai's opulent vocabulary.

Uma, the plain, spinster daughter of a close-knit Indian family, is trapped at home, smothered by her overbearing parents and their traditions, unlike her ambitious younger sister Aruna, who brings off a 'good' marriage, and brother Arun, the disappointing son and heir who is studying in America.

To the family living in the shabby, dusty house in Delhi, Tara's visit brings a sharp reminder of life outside tradition. Looking at both the cruelty and beauty of family life and the harshness of India's modern history, Clear Light of Day brilliantly evokes the painful process of confronting and healing old wounds.

*Selected as a 2017 Book of the Year by The Sunday Times* 'To compare Anita Desai's fiction with that of Chekhov or the short stories of Tolstoy is not extravagant;

Eric is an uncertain, awkward young man, a would-be writer, and a traveller in spite of himself. On the Dia de los Muertos, the feast day when the locals celebrate and remember their dead, the various strands of the novel come together hauntingly, bringing together past and present in a moment of quiet, powerful epiphany.

He believes he finds it at the feet of 'the Mother', but down-to-earth Sophie, who accompanies him, does not find her inspiring so much as mysterious, and decides to trace the Mother's own story - from her travels with an Indian dance troupe in Paris, Venice and New York, to her search for divine love in India.

Set in contemporary Bombay and other cities, these stories reflect the kaleidoscope of urban life - evoking the colour, sounds and white-hot heat of the city.

Touching and wonderfully funny, In Custody is woven around the yearnings and calamities of a small-town scholar in the north of India. An impoverished college lecturer, Deven, sees a way to escape from the meanness of his daily life when he is asked to interview India's greatest Urdu poet, Nur - a project that can only end in disaster.

Nanda Kaul is old. It is an intrusion Nanda Kaul deeply resents, but this child has a capacity to change things. Through the long hot summer months hidden dependencies and old wounds are uncovered, until tragedy seems as inevitable as a forest fire on the hillsides surrounding the villa.

Whole lives come into focus in this rich and diverse collection, as Desai trains her luminous spotlight on private universes from India to Canada and New England, from Cornwall to Mexico. And in the final quiet masterpiece, one of Delhi's girls of slender means finds a kind of joy and freedom in a strange rooftop community.