Book Review: The Inheritance of Loss

Five years ago my father casually handed me a copy of this book. The cover looked decayed and the pages were unattractive. A gloomy, complex title accompanied by an Indian author’s name had immediately earned my distrust. I chose to ignore the book in my effort then to only read fancy, foreign authors. 

Now, as I’ve set myself to the task of digging up good Indian writing in English fueled by a desire to understand my own roots better, Desai’s book is nothing less than a jewel. Someone who has traveled abroad or ever felt a sense of detachment from the great mess of religions and cultures we collectively call ‘India’, will find the plot quite touching. And to those who can’t relate to it, the book still renders the classic theme of identity loss under the backdrop of the Gorkhaland movement in a post-colonial India. 

But it’s not the plot or the historical setting that glued me to this book, it was the magnificent prose that is brimming with vivid imagery and metaphor. This is the kind of book which you can fully appreciate as you read along rather than a work which evokes praise only when it has delivered a justifiable end. The characters are chiseled to perfection and it left me in awe every time I saw the truth of the story being told as rightly and truly as possible. No vague, false speculations. Just hard, cold truth. 

This is exactly the kind of novel that one wants to read to be convinced of the less-believed fact that there are great Indian writers out there. The prose on various pages often rises to a crescendo, almost transforming into poetry. 

Final Verdict: If heavy description blended with poignant metaphor, social-historical commentary, and a dose of depressing pessimism can turn you on - this is the book you’ve been wanting all along.

5/5