Anita Desai is an Indian novelist born in 1937 in Mussoorie, India. She was born to a German mother and Bengali businessman father and grew up speaking German, Bengali, Urdu, Hindi, and English. She earned a bachelor's degree from Delhi University in 1957 and married author Ashvin Desai in 1958. Desai has written several acclaimed novels and received many literary awards, including the Sahitya Akademi Award. She is considered a pioneer for introducing psychological novels and feminist themes to Indian literature.

1. ANITA DESAI
(NOVELIST)
Presented by,
NIDHI SONKAR
MBA Ist year

2. CHRONOLOGY
 Anita Mazumdar Desai was born on 24
June, 1937 in Mussoorie , India
 She was born to a German mother, Toni
Nime and a Bengali businessman, D.N.
Mazumdar
 She grew up speaking German at home and
Bengali, Urdu, Hindi and English at school
and in the city streets.

3. FAMILY LIFE
 In 1958, she married Ashvin Desai, the
director of a computer software company and
author of the book: Between Eternities: Ideas
on Life and The Cosmos.
 They have four children, including Booker
Prize-winning novelist Kiran Desai.

4. EDUCATION
 She was a student at Queen Mary's Higher
Secondary School in Delhi
 She earned her Bachelors of Arts Degree
from Miranda House of the Delhi University in
1957.

5. NOVELS
 Fasting,Feastin, 1999
 In Custody, 1984
 The Village by the Sea, 1982
 Clear Light Of Day, 1980
 Fire on the Mountain
1977
 Cry, the Peacock, 1963

6. ACHIEVEMENT
She has received many awards for her work :-
 1978 – Sahitya Akademi Award (National
Academy of Letters Award) – Fire on the
Mountain
 1980 – Shortlisted, Booker Prize for Fiction –
Clear Light of Day
 1983 – Guardian Children's Fiction Prize – The
Village by the Sea: an Indian family story

7. • 1984 – Shortlisted, Booker Prize for Fiction –
In
Custody
• 1993 – Neil Gunn Prize
• 1999 – Shortlisted, Booker Prize for Fiction:
Fasting, Feasting
• 2003 – Benson Medal of Royal Society of
Literature
• 2014 – Sahitya Academy
Award

8. ACCOMPLISHMENT
• Purington Professor of English, Mount
Holyoke College, 1988-93
• Professor of Creative writer, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, 1993—
• She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of
Literature, the American Academy of Arts and
Letters, and of Girton College, Cambridge

9. CONCLUSION
 Desai is considered the writer who
introduced the psychological novel in the
tradition of Virginia Woolf to India.
 Included in this, is her pioneer status of
writing of feminist issues.
 She says, her writing is realistic
 Her fiction has covered themes such as
women’s oppression and quest for a
fulfilling identity, family relationship and
contrasts, the crumbling of traditions,
and anti-Semitism.

10. QUOTES

11. THANK YOU