Cry, The Peacock - Anita Desai

Cry, The Peacock

Cry, The Peacock is the story of a young girl, Maya, obsessed by a childhood prophecy of disaster. The author builds up an atmosphere of tension as torrid and oppressive as a stiffling Indian summer, both in the crowded, colourful cities and the strangely beautiful countryside.

Book Review

'Maya's extreme sensitivity never alienates the reader because it is rendered in terms of measurable human loneliness... How well Desai does in the business of carrying her narrative through to a satisfactory, even explosive end.' — The Times Literary Supplement, London

'Anita Desai creates a stained glass landscape with details of images, colours and odours... Cry, the Peacock is the product of a mellowed craftswoman.' — Statesman

Author

Anita Desai was born in 1937 in Mussoorie but spent much of her early life in Delhi, where she received her B.A. in English Literature and graduated with honours from the University of Delhi.

As a writer she has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Girton College, Cambridge and Clare Hall, Cambridge.

Book Details