Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard [Paperback]

Winner of the Betty Trask Award, Kiran Desai’s dazzling debut novel is a hilarious story of life, love, and family that tells the surprising and delightful story of a young man’s unusual path to fame in a small Northern Indian city

Praised by Salman Rushdie and Junot Diaz, among others,Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchardwas published to great acclaim in 1998, and established Kiran Desai as a vivid literary voice eight years beforeThe Inheritance of Losswon the Man Booker Prize. Sampath Chawla was born in a time of drought into a family not quite like other families, in a town not quite like other towns. After years of failure and spending his days dreaming in tea stalls, it does not seem as if Sampath is going to amount to much—until one day he climbs a guava tree in search of peaceful contemplation and becomes unexpectedly famous as a holy man, sending his tiny town into turmoil. A syndicate of larcenous, alcoholic monkeys terrorizes the pilgrims who cluster around Sampath’s tree, spies and profiteers descend on the town, and none of Desai’s outrageous characters goes unaffected as events spin increasingly out of control.

Praise forHullabaloo in the Guava Orchard: 

Winner of the Betty Trask Award

“Delectable—with this sprightly first novel, Kiran Desai takes her place among the pack of gifted young Indian writers.” —Wall Street Journal

“A finely tuned fable that attests to the author’s pitch-perfect ear . . . The author delineates [the characters] with such with and bemused affection that they insinuate themsellã)