Kiran Desai: ‘All cultures are rooted in magic’
From our UK edition
It wasn’t until a painting arrived in her post, a gift from the Italian artist Francesco Clemente, that Kiran Desai’s latest novel – The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny – came into being, eventually finding its way onto last year's Booker Prize shortlist. Desai was worried about losing her subject matter when she left India The haunting artwork from Clemente’s 108-watercolours series, titled Emblems of Transformation, depicted a black, faceless, eyeless deity adorned with jewels, suffused with ochre, with a heart for an abdomen at the centre of its body. Drawn to its mystical pull, Desai anointed it the 'Badal Baba' – 'hermit of the clouds' – and was compelled to thread her novel through it.
