The Namesake

Author: Jhumpa Lahiri

Stock information

General Fields

  • : 19.99 AUD
  • : 9780006551805
  • : HarperCollins Publishers
  • : 4th Estate GB
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  • : 0.212
  • : May 2004
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  • : 22.99
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  • : books

Special Fields

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  • : Jhumpa Lahiri
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  • : Paperback
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  • :
  • : English
  • : 813.54
  • : very good
  • :
  • : 320
  • : FA
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Barcode 9780006551805
9780006551805

Description

"Dazzling...An intimate, closely observed family portrait."--The New York Times "Hugely appealing."--People Magazine "An exquisitely detailed family saga."--Entertainment Weekly Meet the Ganguli family, new arrivals from Calcutta, trying their best to become Americans even as they pine for home. The name they bestow on their firstborn, Gogol, betrays all the conflicts of honoring tradition in a new world--conflicts that will haunt Gogol on his own winding path through divided loyalties, comic detours, and wrenching love affairs. In The Namesake, the Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri brilliantly illuminates the immigrant experience and the tangled ties between generations.

Reviews

'The Namesake is the story of a boy brought up Indian in America, from 'the kind of writer who makes you want to grab the next person and say "Read this!"' --AMY TAN 'Extraordinary...a book that spins gold out of the straw of ordinary lives. The calm, pellucid grace of her prose, the sustained stretch of crystal clear writing, its elegant pianissimo tone, pulls the reader from beginning to end in one neat arc. Every detail, every observation, every sentence rings with the clarity of truth. The Namesake is a novel that makes its reader feel privileged to be allowed access to its immensely empathetic world.' --The Times 'Impeccably written'--Daily Mail 'Gracious...in refined, empathetic prose...each of Lahiri's characters patches together their own identity, making this resonant fable neither uniquely Asian nor uniquely American, but tenderly, wryly human.'--Hephzibah Anderson, The Observer 'This is certainly a novel that explores the concepts of cultural identity, of rootlessness, of tradition and familial expectation...but ...it never succumbs to the cliches those themes so often entail. Instead, Lahiri turns it into something both larger and simpler: the story of a man and his family, of his life and hopes, loves and sorrows. She has a talent -- magical, sly, cumulative -- that most writers would kill for.'--Julie Myerson, The Guardian 'Jhumpa Lahiri's excellent first novel... is the work of a fine writer, discriminating, compassionate and surprising. It is, too, a story for our times.'--Rachel Cusk, Evening Standard 'A joy to read.'--Sunday Telegraph 'Eloquent...Lahiri's prose is striking. Spurning the antsy, transcultural wordplay of may Asian-American authors, she writes with journalistic precision. Like a Victorian urban chronicler, she loves to amass inventories. Things matter to her and to her characters; they are bulwarks against drift and confusion. The Namesake...is lucid, generous in its narrative scope, and an extremely accomplished first novel.'--Sukhdev Sandhu, Daily Telegraph 'Covering about 30 years...the novel manages to represent, without patronising, life within the confines of a professional expatriate enclave. Lahiri is at her best when mapping these confines, and the conflicts between individual pursuits and family loyalties...Fluid, accessible and...very good indeed.'--The Independent 'Good novelists, like Bengali parents, must make their creations unique, and Lahiri's central characters are painfully believable...An extremely good first novel, a glowing miniature of a tiny family making the voyage between two worlds.' --Maggie Gee

Author description

Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London of Bengali parents, and grew up in Rhode Island, USA. Her stories have appeared in many American journals, including the New Yorker. Interpreter of Maladies, her first published collection, won the Pulitzer Prize 2000 for Fiction, the New Yorker Prize for Best First Book, the PEN/Hemingway Award and was shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Award. Jhumpa Lahiri lives in New York.