Unaccustomed Earth

Everyone has their secrets. In her stunning new collection of stories, Jhumpa Lahirigently lifts the veil to reveal how even the most ordinary lives have their dramas and tragedies andthen, as gently, lets it fall back down again. A middle aged man discovers that the death of his wife opens up his world in unexpected ways-his daughter worries that she will now have to look after him but finds that the tables have, in fact,turned; a housewife falls in love with a younger family friend-her child ascertains her secret manyyears on; a son is revulsed by his father s second marriage to a young woman who has none of thesophistication and elegance of his mother; a sister tries to save her brother from alcoholism andfinds herself rejecting him like everyone else. A young man and woman whose lives cross over theyears, finally and fatedly fall in love. Unaccustomed Earth returns to the terrain-the heart of family life and the immigrant experience-that Jhumpa Lahiri has made utterly hers, but her themes, this time around, have darkened anddeepened. Poised, nuanced, deeply moving, here is a superb collection: the finest she has writtenyet.