Unaccustomed Earth (hb)

Everyone has their secrets. In her stunning new collection of stories, Jhumpa Lahiri gently lifts the veil to reveal how even the most ordinary lives have their dramas and tragedies and then, 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, in fact, have turned; a housewife falls in love with a family friend, her child ascertains her secret years on; a young man and woman whose lives cross over the years, 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 and deepened. Poised, nuanced, deeply moving, this is a superb book.