Desai, Anita

Desai, Anita
orig. Anita Mazumdar

born June 24, 1937, Mussoorie, India

Indian novelist and author of children's books.

Considered India's premier imagist writer, she excels in evoking character and mood through visual images. Her works include Fire on the Mountain (1977), Clear Light of Day (1980), Baumgartner's Bombay (1988), Journey to Ithaca (1995), and the story collection Diamond Dust (2000).

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▪ Indian author
original name  Anita Mazumdar 
born June 24, 1937, Mussoorie, India
 
 English-language Indian novelist and author of children's books who excelled in evoking character and mood through visual images ranging from the meteorologic to the botanical.

      Born to a German mother and Bengali father, Desai grew up speaking German, Hindi, and English. She received a B.A. in English from the University of Delhi in 1957. The suppression and oppression of Indian women were the subjects of her first novel, Cry, the Peacock (1963), and a later novel, Where Shall We Go This Summer? (1975). Fire on the Mountain (1977) was criticized as relying too heavily on imagery at the expense of plot and characterization, but it was praised for its poetic symbolism and use of sounds. Clear Light of Day (1980), considered the author's most successful work, is praised for its highly evocative portrait of two sisters caught in the lassitude of Indian life. Its characters are revealed not only through imagery but through gesture, dialogue, and reflection. As do most of her works, the novel reflects Desai's essentially tragic view of life. Baumgartner's Bombay (1988) explores German and Jewish identity in the context of a chaotic contemporary India.

      Other novels by Desai include In Custody (1984; film 1994) and Journey to Ithaca (1995). Fasting, Feasting (1999) takes as its subject the connections and gaps between Indian and American culture, while The Zigzag Way (2004) tells the story of an American academic who travels to Mexico to trace his Cornish ancestry. Desai also wrote short fiction—collections include Games at Twilight, and Other Stories (1978) and Diamond Dust, and Other Stories (2000)—and several children's books, including The Village by the Sea (1982). Her daughter Kiran Desai (Desai, Kiran) won the Booker Prize for the novel The Inheritance of Loss (2006).

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Desai, Anita — orig. Anita Mazumdar (n. 24 jun. 1937, Mussoorie, India). Novelista india, también autora de libros infantiles. Sobresaliente en la evocación de temperamentos y estados de ánimo mediante imágenes visuales, se la considera la principal escritora… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Anita Desai — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Anita Desai Nacimiento …   Wikipedia Español

  • Anita (given name) — Anita is a common given name for women. Variations of Anita include* Annette * Anna * Annie * Anya * AnnikaPeople* Anita Aros, Yugoslavian tennis player * Anita Baker, multi platinum selling rhythm and blues singer songwriter and 8 time Grammy… …   Wikipedia

  • Anita Desai — Infobox Writer imagesize = 150px name = Anita Desai caption = pseudonym = birthname =Anita Mazumdar birthdate = birth date and age|1937|6|24|mf=y birthplace = Mussoorie, India occupation = Author nationality = Indian period = 1970s present genre …   Wikipedia

  • Desai, Kiran — ▪ 2008 born Sept. 3, 1971, New Delhi, India  Kiran Desai s second novel, The Inheritance of Loss, was short listed for the Orange Broadband Prize in 2007, a year after it was published. That it failed to win hardly detracted from its prior… …   Universalium

  • Anita — (as used in expressions) Shirley Anita St. Hill Desai, Anita Anita Mazumdar Loos, Anita …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Anita — /euh nee teuh/, n. a female given name: Spanish form of Anna. * * * (as used in expressions) Desai Anita Anita Mazumdar Loos Anita * * * …   Universalium

  • Anita Desai — (* 24. Juni 1937 in Masuri) ist eine indische Schriftstellerin, die Romane und Kurzgeschichten verfasst. Sie ist bekannt für die sensible Beschreibung der Gefühle ihrer weiblichen Charaktere. Viele ihrer Novellen beinhalten die Spannungen… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Anita Desai — est une romancière indienne d expression anglaise née à Mussoorie, Inde le 24 juin 1937. Anita Desai est née d un père bengali et une mère allemande. Elle passe une bonne parti de sa vie à New Delhi. Elle partage actuellement son temps… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Anita Desai — (Mussoorie, 24 de junio de 1937) escritora india de expresión inglesa, afincada en Estados Unidos. Anita Mazumdar nació en Mussoorie, al norte de Delhi, de padre indio y madre alemana. Cursó sus estudios secundarios y universitarios en Delhi,… …   Enciclopedia Universal

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