Baumgartner's Bombay

Anita Desai was born and educated in India. Her published works include many award-winning short story collections and novels, three of which have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, most recently Fasting, Feasting. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and lives in New York State.

"One of the best English novelists writing in English" Independent "Hugo Baumgartner, the central character of Anita Desai's dazzling novel, is a wandering Jew all his life. From the agonising scenes of his childhood in pre-war Berlin, through his spell in business in Calcutta and then Bombay, he simply does not belong. Too dark for Hitler's society, he is too fair for India; he remains a firanghi, a foreigner, whatever he goes" Daily Telegraph "Beautifully observed... Recovers a lost slice of history in its portrayal of a wounded survivor" Observer "Cleverly constructed, and full of sharp perceptions about human nature under the skin, whatever the colour" The Times "Anita Desai writes beautifully, employing an opulent vocabulary to great effect in her physical descriptions... The achievement of a superior writer" Literary Review