From the internationally best-selling, Pulitzer Prize–winning author, a superbly crafted new work of fiction: eight stories—longer and more emotionally complex than any she has yet written—that take us from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand as they enter the lives of sisters and brothers, fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, friends and lovers.
In the stunning title story, Ruma, a young mother in a new city, is visited by her father, who carefully tends the earth of her garden, where he and his grandson form a special bond. But he’s harboring a secret from his daughter, a love affair he’s keeping all to himself. In “A Choice of Accommodations,” a husband’s attempt to turn an old friend’s wedding into a romantic getaway weekend with his wife takes a dark, revealing turn as the party lasts deep into the night. In “Only Goodness,” a sister 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 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 withJhumpa Lahiri’s signature gifts: exquisite prose, emotional wisdom, and subtle renderings of the most intricate workings of the heart and mind. It is a masterful, dazzling work of a writer at the peak of her powers.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Rich with detail and complexity, these short stories are novels that end too soon
As we've come to expect from Jhumpa Lahiri, this collection of eight short stories examines the immigrant experience in America, including the difficulties of adjusting to a new culture and workplace and ... Read More
Rating: - Emotions will linger long after you've finished the book
I read the first story in this collection with a lump in my throat. The way Lahiri describes her characters and their stories is so simple, yet so incredibly heart wrenching that I found myself aching along ... Read More
Rating: - A Perfect 10
Jhumper Lahiri is doing for America's Bengali community what Saul Bellow, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Bernard Malamud did for the Jews of America-and Lahiri lives comfortably with these greats.
Five short ... Read More
Rating: - Great storytelling
I thought The Interpreter of Maladies was good, but this is even better. I most often prefer reading novels, but I have enjoyed Lahiri's stories so much. The length of the stories of the stories has a lot to ... Read More
Rating: - Great Stories...
I don't know why but I found each story gripping...I was always disappointed when each story came to an end.
- Rich with detail and complexity, these short stories are novels that end too soon