Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard

Kiran Desai · b. 1971 · India / United States

Why it matters

A hapless postal clerk climbs a guava tree to escape his small town and is mistaken for a holy man by adoring crowds below, then upstaged by a troop of liquor-guzzling monkeys. Desai's antic, cheerfully absurd debut, written well before her prizewinning turn toward grief.

At a glance

Fast-paced comic set pieces in accessible prose, with a light satirical edge.