The
Inheritance of Loss by
Kiran Desai
Hamish
Hamilton, 2006
238 x 157 x 34mm
Bound by Angela James
Calf leather joints. Double board construction: first board laced on with the sewing tapes. Double silk headbands
worked using the colours of the Indian flag. Spine covered with light blue goatskin with very thin onlays of airbrushed red
and black calf. Upper boards covered off the book and then laminated onto the lower boards and covering leather
turned in. Front board - natural calf with colour photograph printed on to the upper part. Design drawn in resist medium
and airbrushed with metallic green acrylic inks. Onlay of transfer photocopy on natural calf with ink staining. Gold tooling.
Back board - photograph printed onto upper part. Resist design airbrushed with acrylic inks. Onlays of red, yellow
and green airbrushed calf. Photograph and words printed onto calf. Gold tooled stars. Light blue goatskin doublures.
Front doublure has onlay of red and black airbrushed calf.
Signed at back A.P.J. 2006
"The book is set in two starkly contrasting places - the far North of India and New York - and this is the reason for
the two very different designs on front and back; the spine separating each and representing the gulf between.
The design is, I think, self explanatory. Mount Kanchenjunga in the distance, the lush green growth of fern and
banana leaves, sparkling with moisture and the gold diamonds the light glinting through the leaves.
The house is, or was, an actual house in the Darjeeling area and the leather on the left is discoloured to
suggest the creeping decay of the house in the book. The obvious symbols of New York on the back cover are
instantly recognisable worldwide. Biju is represented as a small boy, making him seem even more vulnerable in
the fast and impersonal city. Parts of the Nepali flag are suggested on the spine and on the front doublure."