In the north-eastern Himalayas, at the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga, in an isolated and crumbling house, there lives an embittered old judge, who wants nothing more than to retire in peace. But with the arrival of his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, and the son of his chatty cook trying to stay a step ahead of US immigration services, this is far from easy.About The AuthorKiran Desai was born in 1971 in India, and was educated in India, England and the United States. She studied creative writing at Columbia University and is the daughter of the author, Anita Desai, who herself has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times. Kiran Desai's first book was Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard (1998) which went on to win a Betty Trask Award and her most recent book The Inheritance of Loss won The Man Booker Prize in 2006.