Unaccustomed Earth

Stories

By: Jhumpa Lahiri

Narrated by: Sarita Choudhury, Ajay Naidu

From the internationally best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, a superbly crafted new work of fiction: eight stories that take us from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand.

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 and 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.

©2008 Jhumpa Lahiri (P)2008 Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Lahiri's enormous gifts as a storyteller are on full display in this collection: the gorgeous, effortless prose; the characters haunted by regret, isolation, loss, and tragedies big and small; and most of all, a quiet, emerging sense of humanity." (Khaled Hosseini)
"The author's ability to flesh out completely even minor characters in every story...is what will keep readers invested in the work until its heartbreaking conclusion." ( Library Journal)

Great read!

The book is a few short stories of second generation Bengalis in the US. Good storytelling that makes the mundane interesting.

Real characters + truth in relationships.

Real characters & truth in relationships connect us all. Beautifully written.
For once, a cast of decent readers! This is a beautiful book and I only wished each character would tell me more.

Lahiri is Austen

Larhiri is India's Jane Austen, and if read with that in mind you'll love these short stories. They are not to be read for a moral or social tidbit but for the dialogue. Her wordplay between family, friends and neighbors paint a beautiful tapestry. Pay attention to what is said and not said. If you do then you'll start to playback your own conversations between family, friends, and neighbors and be better for it.
My only critique is similar to my critique of Austen - conversation is important but constant chitchat never goes anywhere leaving you feeling like somebody gave you a $1 hamburger instead of the $10 one you ordered.
I'd say more but I'll reserve it for another conversation.

Great collection of stories

I highly recommend this new collection of short stories from Jhumpa Lahiri -- the characters are very authentic and the plots of each story have rich and varied directions and surprises, despite all having a common thread of finding one's way in a new place.

I should also note that in general I'm not a fan of short stories, however these are almost like mini-novels with fully realized story arcs -- something that I find is often undercut in much short fiction.

I don't think it was clear...

... that these were all Indian stories. Not that I mind they were Indian stories, but that was a big aspect of almost every story. The summary of the book makes it sound like it's stories from around the world, but it's not (assuming the last few stories went the same way, because I couldn't finish). They are all about Indian kids, with strict parents, getting out into the world.

Again, wouldn't have been a problem except the summary didn't make this clear at all.

Excellent Read!

This is the second book of hers I have read. This one is the best. I enjoyed learning more about Indian culture and exploring how they love and relate to one another. I was pleased to find out that many of the stories were connected. That was very clever. Outstanding work. A good read for those who are interested in a stories with well developed characters and great plot lines.

Excellent

I really enjoyed the stories in this book. The characters spring to life with strong human emotion.

You feel like you know her characters

I love the way Lahiri draws you into the characters' stories and creates tension without excessive drama.

The Lahiri Experience

Each story, palpable, raw, torturous and divine, drops us in an “unaccustomed earth”. ~LOVELY S

Shot of whiskey

This was a really good book and a shot of whiskey for any member of the NRI global community … Indians leaving india to forge a new life in a new land. As an Indian born in the USA, India will never be my primary identity… we are plants of exotic seeds that have sprouted in domestic soil