In 2003, Lahiri published her first novel, The Namesake which was inspired by a story she heard in her family as a child. It addressed a lot of the sensitive dilemmas faced by Indian Immigrants. When it was finally released in 1999, it won her a debut Pulitzer Prize and sold over 6,00,000 copies. In the beginning of her writing career, she faced rejection to get her debut Short Story Collection, “The Interpreter of Maladies” published.

Later, she received multiple degrees from Boston University such as M.A in English, M.F.A in Creative Writing amongst others. Lahiri graduated from South Kingstown High School and received her B.A in literature from Barnard College of Columbia University in 1989. When she grew up as an adult, she realized that it was possible to live without being tugged away completely by one of her sides. She had always felt a struggle between the American and Indian sides of her. It led her to feel embarrassed by her name as if her existence caused someone around her pain. Since her kindergarten, Lahiri felt tentative possibly because of her teacher calling her by her pet name ‘Jhumpa’ as it was easier to pronounce her real name. Lahiri grew up in Kingston, Rhode Island with a mother who wanted her children to remember their ‘Bengali’ heritage and a father who worked as a librarian.

Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London to Indian Immigrants who later moved to America when she was three years old. Here is the full analysis and review of the short story (that belonged to a Collection) that won the Frank O’ Connor International Short Story Award. I started reading it and I soon found myself admiring the lyric-like writing with paragraphs serving more as poetry than as prose.Īs I finished the story, I marveled at the way the story was written and was in awe of Lahiri’s writing style, the likeness of which is found in very few authors. Hence, without the other counterparts, they were liable to feel bored and confused as there was no actual set-up for the stories and they were just put into action. The Syllabus only provided them with one of the three-part ‘long-short story’.

Unaccustomed earth by jhumpa lahiri