The winner of the 2006 Man Booker Prize is Kiran Desai, at age thirty-five the youngest woman to win, and also the first woman to win since Margaret Atwood took home the prize in 2006.

The Indian-born writer's mother has been shortlisted three times although she's never won, and this year daughter Kiran Desai's Inheritance of Loss, described by reviewers as "the best, sweetest, most delightful novel" is the prize winner.

Hermione Lee, chairman of the judges, commented, “We are delighted to announce that the winner of the Man Booker Prize for 2006 is Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss, a magnificent novel of humane breadth and wisdom, comic tenderness and powerful political acuteness. The winner was chosen, after a long, passionate and generous debate, from a shortlist of five other strong and original voices.”

Kiran Desai is also the author of Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard.