Anita Desai

Anita Desai's literary achievements are remarkable. She has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times, a feat that places her among the most recognized Indian authors internationally. Her novel Fire on the Mountain won the Sahitya Akademi Award, India's highest literary honor, and her children's book The Village by the Sea won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. In 2020, she was made a Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature, an honor given to only a select few. Her work continues to be studied and admired, and she has inspired a new generation of Indian writers, including her own daughter, Kiran Desai.