JHUMPA LAHIRI is the author of four works of fiction: Interpreter of Maladies, The Namesake, Unaccustomed Earth, and The Lowland; and a work of nonfiction, In Other Words. She has received numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize; the PEN/Hemingway Award; the PEN/Malamud Award; the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award; the Premio Gregor von Rezzori; the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature; a 2014 National Humanities Medal, awarded by President Barack Obama; and the Premio Internazionale Viareggio-Versilia, for In altre parole.
A Most Anticipated Novel of the Year from: Buzzfeed • O, The Oprah
Magazine • TIME • Vulture • Vogue • LitHub • Harper's Bazaar
“A quietly bracing work of fiction . . . This is arguably Lahiri’s
most beautifully written novel.”
—Jennifer Wilson, The Nation
“A gorgeous, contemplative read . . . Poetic prose that invites you
to linger over the words.”
—Real Simple, “Best Books of 2021 (so far)”
“Whereabouts is rendered in short, journal-like fragments so
strongly and rightly voiced that other books sound wrong when you
turn to them."
—Claire Dederer, The Atlantic
“Lahiri writes with subtlety and delicacy.”
—Heller McAlpin, NPR
“Another masterstroke in a career already filled with them.”
—O, the Oprah Magazine
“Whereabouts signals a new mode for Lahiri, and a daring
transformation . . . It feels true and wise to the core.”
—Anderson Tepper, Los Angeles Times
“Subtle and stirring . . . A fascinating departure in cadence and
form for Lahiri. Whereabouts [is written with] the sort of deft
hand so few can properly wield: it evokes the sort of slow thrum of
despair and loneliness so few can manage well. But Lahiri is no
ordinary writer. There’s a calming sense of comfort one finds in
the solitude experienced by our main character, largely due to the
exactness of Lahiri’s writing. Poetic as she is and always has
been, seemingly innocuous turns of phrase cut to the core, while
descriptions of light and darkness take you aback and make you
swoon. Elegantly observed and often beautifully sad . . .
Whereabouts will stay with you longer than you anticipate.”
—Alicia Lutes, USA Today
“Hypnotic…a book [whose] peculiar magnetism lies in its clash of
candour and coyness.”
—Anthony Cummins, The Guardian
“Skillful… Lahiri's sentences are honed to minimalist beauty. A
loose narrative emerges of an Italian woman at a crossroads in her
life . . . The chapters detail encounters, but other humans are
like passing shadows. The pain of the narrator’s isolation feels
extremely real.”
—Madeleine Thien, The New York Times Book Review
“Lahiri’s prose shimmers with precise detail. Whether it’s an
American-born son misunderstanding his Bengali father’s wishes in
The Namesake or an Indian guide seeing dangers that American
tourists cannot in Interpreter of Maladies, Lahiri has demonstrated
that she is a master of cultural collisions. Whereabouts returns to
her ever-present theme, now in an Italian setting, of the terrors
and joys wrought by bridging worlds.”
—L.A. Taggart, San Francisco Chronicle
“Fresh, unique . . . Lahiri [has] stretched the form of the novel.
Wandering through an anonymous life, seeing things through one
person’s eyes, is enjoyable . . . At one point the narrator becomes
as voyeuristic as her readers, following a stranger on the street
and asking herself, ‘What’s her face like? Has she always lived
here, like me?’ Each chapter floats by quickly, [with] sparse and
lyrical prose.”
—Rob Merrill, Associated Press
“Some books leave you with a feeling for which there are no words,
or at least no words in English that you know of. Jhumpa Lahiri’s
Whereabouts is one of those books. The feeling closest to what is
evoked by this beautifully crafted novel is a stroll during the
blue hour on the first warm evening of spring. A jewel of a
book.”
—Arlene McKanic, BookPage
“Elegant . . . Lyrical . . . Beautiful.”
—Michael Magras, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"A meditative and aching snapshot of a life in
suspension... Lahiri’s poetic flourishes and spare,
conversational prose are on full display. This beautifully written
portrait of a life in passage captures the hopes, frustrations, and
longings of solitude and remembrance."
—Publishers Weekly [starred review]
“Painterly… exquisitely detailed… [Lahiri’s] language seems to have
been sieved through a fine mesh, each word a gleaming gemstone.
Such expressive refinement perfectly embodies Lahiri’s narrator,
who lives alone in an unnamed Italian city [and] examines her life
in first-person vignettes… There is melancholy here, but these
concentrated, poignant, and rueful episodes also pulse with the
narrator's devotion to observation and her pushing through
depression to live on her terms. She exalts in her lively
neighborhood, in the country beneath skies as moody as she is, and
by the tempestuous sea, all while recording her stealthy battle
against her tendency to burrow into her shell. An incisive and
captivating evocation of the nature and nexus of place and
self.”
—Donna Seaman, Booklist
"Elegant, subtle, and sad... Its spare, reflective prose and
profound interiority recall the work of Rachel Cusk and Sigrid
Nunez."
—Kirkus
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