Ever since Kiran Desai won the Man Booker Prize in October last year, as the youngest female winner in the award’s 39 year history, I have been wanting to read it. I picked up my paperback copy from Heathrow while flying home for Christmas, but could not find the time. I admit I felt slightly apprehensive, thinking that as a Booker Prize winner it must be a difficult, challenging read.

Then the book was chosen as the March title for the SYP Oxford Book Club and I suddenly had both a very good reason and a deadline for reading it.

The story is set in Kalimpong in India, far north-east in the Himalayan mountains, near Bhutan and Nepal. I admit I had to look Kalimpong up on a map, as Himalayan geography was never my strongest subject…

The story gripped me within a few pages and transported me completely and utterly to a tiny mountain village on the other side of the world. I could vividly imagine the shabby house where Sai, the main character, lives with her grandfather and their cook, the landscape, plants, smells, even the humidity during monsoon season. I have missed reading stories like this!

The book gets under your skin, and it made me feel angry, sad, annoyed and nostalgic as the story progressed. The haunting loneliness that permeates the family lineage of all the characters, the extreme poverty and widespread injustice, the Nepalese insurgency – uncomfortable to read about but necessary for understanding the culture and history where the story is set.

It’s been several days since I finished the book but the story won’t let go, it’s playing on my mind and has inspired me to read more about India, West Bengal, Darjeeling and the conflicts in this area. Warmly recommended!