Unaccustomed Earth

Jhumpa Lahiri

Apr 2008 · Sold by Vintage

About this ebook

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Interpreter of Maladies: These eight stories take us from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand, as they explore the secrets at the heart of family life.
 
“Glorious.... Showcases a considerable talent in full bloom.” —San Francisco Chronicle

In the stunning title story, Ruma, a young mother in a new city, is visited by her father who carefully tends her garden–where she later unearths evidence of a love affair he is keeping to himself. In “A Choice of Accommodations,” a couple’s romantic getaway weekend takes a dark turn at a party that lasts deep into the night. In “Only Goodness,” a woman eager to give her younger brother the perfect childhood she never had is overwhelmed by guilt, anguish and anger when his alcoholism threatens her family. And in “Hema and Kaushik,” a trio of linked stories–a luminous, intensely compelling elegy of life, death, love and fate–we follow the lives of a girl and boy who, one fateful winter, share a house in Massachusetts. They travel from innocence to experience on separate, sometimes painful paths, until destiny brings them together again years later in Rome.

Unaccustomed Earth is rich with the author’s signature gifts: exquisite prose, emotional wisdom, and subtle renderings of the most intricate workings of the heart and mind. It is the work of a writer at the peak of her powers.

Ratings and reviews

Jhumpa Lahiri always is at her best with short stories. She manage to capture and describe with simple and delicate strokes, the feeling and the tragedies of real people. While all the short stories are interesting, the last three really stand out. These interwined stories shows reality how it is perceived through the eyes of the characters (very Pirandello's). What I particularly loved is the description of the inability of some of the characters of accepting their feelings, the struggle between what is considered right and true happiness, between the American and the Indian soul of the characters. Room with a view with a strong ABCD flavor. Must read.

Just finished "Unaccustomed earth". Amazing work of fiction. I myself immigrant from India with 2 daughters born and raised here and now three grand daughters, could relate to the characters, Jumpa describes, very well .What a magical way of telling a story and yet so simple. I found myself in the story, almost living it! experiencing every line as if it was happening right in front of my eyes. tears runnung down my eyes, strange experience I never felt before. I was emotionally stunned. This is what I call a "true story" writing!

Wanting more. That is where Lahiri leaves you after almost every story in this collection. Readers that seek closure will probably walk away frustrated that she has not spelled out the fate of each character, but for those that let their imagination take the characters forward, it is a satisfying experience. Although the lives of most readers is dissimilar to the experience of the vaunted north eastern globetrotters led by most of the Bengali ivy league educated professional in these stories, the struggle of relationships with parents, siblings, significant others and oneself is a universal touch stone. It is difficult for expectations not to be raised when an author wins awards and their books are turned into movies. Especially when they are also expected to be the spokesperson for a group of people and their common struggle. Although, she never asked for these responsibilities, the quality of writing in "Unaccustomed Earth" demonstrates that Lahiri carries those flags with grace.

About the author

Jhumpa Lahiri is the author of four works of fiction: Interpreter of Maladies, The Namesake, Unaccustomed Earth, and The Lowland; and a work of nonfiction, In Other Words. She has received numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize; the PEN/Hemingway Award; the PEN/Malamud Award; the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award; the Premio Gregor von Rezzori; the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature; a 2014 National Humanities Medal, awarded by President Barack Obama; and the Premio Internazionale Viareggio-Versilia, for In altre parole.