Unaccustomed Earth Author:Jhumpa Lahiri Knopf Canada is proud to welcome this bestselling, Pulitzer Prize?winning author with eight dazzling stories that take us from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand as they explore the secrets at the heart of family life. — In the stunning title story, Ruma, a young mother in a new city, is visited by her father who carefully tends her gard... more »en?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.
This is a beautiful book, skillfully written. It gives you insight into so many aspects of life. It informs about Bengali culture, it teaches about relationships, and is so beautifully written that you are carried along effortlessly in every story and immediately want to start the next one. I found myself telling the stories to friends in order to encourage them to read it also. Anyone who has a family will see themselves in some part of these stories. Highly recommend.