Author Anita Desai conferred Lifetime achievement award

 

 

 

ANITA Desai, one of India’s best-known authors, has been conferred with the Tata Literature Live! Lifetime Achievement Award for 2021. Desai’s authorship has spanned more than 50 years, with memorable works such as ‘Fire On The Mountain’, ‘Cry The Peacock’, ‘A Village By The Sea’, ‘The Clear Light Of Day’, ‘Baumgartner’s Bombay’, and ‘In Custody’, which was made into a Merchant Ivory film starring Shashi Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, and Amrish Puri.

 

Desai’s blend of lyrical style, ease with different cultures, and a clear-eyed examination and confrontation of realistic truths about society and relationships, made for a unique reading experience that fast led her to occupy a leading place among her peers. She has received several awards and honours in the course of her long-spanning literary career, including the Padma Bhushan, Sahitya Akademi Award and later Fellowship, and the Benson Medal of the Royal Society of Literature.