Jhumpa Lahiri

When his Indian immigrant parents give him an odd name, a boy must struggle towards manhood suffering the burdens of this name as well as the conflicting loyalties of his heritage.

Brothers Subhash and Udayan Mitra pursue vastly different lives--Udayan in rebellion-torn Calcutta, Subhash in a quiet corner of America--until a shattering tragedy compels Subhash to return to India, where he endeavors to heal family wounds.

At heart, this is a love story -- of a long and sometimes difficult courtship, and a passion that verges on obsession: that of a writer for another language. For Jhumpa Lahiri, that love was for Italian, which first captivated and capsized her during a trip to Florence after college. Although Lahiri studied Italian for many years afterward, true mastery always eluded her. Seeking full immersion, she decides to move to Rome with her family, for "a...

Rome--metropolis and monument, suspended between past and future, multi-faceted and metaphysical--is the protagonist, not the setting, of these nine stories: the first short story collection by the Pulitzer Prize-winning master of the form since her number one New York Times best seller Unaccustomed Earth. In "The Boundary," one family vacations in the Roman countryside, though we see their lives through the eyes of the caretaker's daughter, who nurses...

The grown son of Indian immigrants is torn between finding his own cultural identity amongst his New York friends and respecting his parents' traditional ways.

New American Stories presents diverse stories of contemporary American life and dreams lost and found, by four of the best young, contemporary writers Jhumpa Lahiri, Sherman Alexie, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Aleksandar Hemon, as performed by terrific stage and screen actors. All four writers have a unique perspective on the American experience which is reflected in their work. Whether they are immigrants from another country, or in the case of...