Further Reading

“As a daughter of Fijian Indian immigrants I found myself weaving back and forth between two very different worlds; my eastern life with my family at home and my western life outside the home with my American friends. Not belonging entirely to either world I felt as if I was living two separate lives. For many years I felt a private solitude and it was not until I heard the stories of other children of immigrants that I was fully able to understand who I was as an Indian, as an American and most importantly as a person.”

—Alpana Singh, television host and author

Quicklinks: By Jhumpa Lahiri | About Jhumpa Lahiri | Related Fiction | For Kids and Teens

Writings by Jhumpa Lahiri

“Indian Takeout”
Food & Wine, April 2000
Reprinted in Sustenance & Desire: A Food Lover’s Anthology of Sensuality & Humor. Edited by Bascove. D. R. Godine, 2004.

“Nobody’s Business”
The New Yorker, March 12, 2001
Reprinted in The Best American Short Stories, 2002. Edited by Sue Miller. Houghton Mifflin, 2002.

The Namesake
Houghton Mifflin, 2003

“Hell-Heaven”
The New Yorker, May 24, 2004
Reprinted in The Best American Nonrequired Reading, 2005. Edited by Dave Eggers. Houghton Mifflin, 2005.

“The Long Way Home: Cooking Lessons”
The New Yorker, September 6, 2004

“The Melancholy, Echoing Call of a Bird”
New York Times, June 19, 2005

“Once in a Lifetime”
The New Yorker, May 8, 2006

About Jhumpa Lahiri

“Reading Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies as a Short Story Cycle”
By Noelle Brada-Williams
Melus 29, Fall 2004
In this scholarly essay, Brada-Williams sees the opposition between care and neglect as a central theme that ties the stories in the collection together.

“Interpreter of Maladies: A Reader’s Guide”
Houghton Mifflin
Includes brief biography, questions for discussion and a short interview from the publisher of Interpreter of Maladies.

“Jhumpa Lahiri”
Authors & Artists for Young Adults v. 56
Gale Research, 2004
A short biography of the author.

“Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies”
Weekend Edition Sunday
Interview by Liane Hansen
NPR, August 22, 1999
Lahiri discusses the origin of the title Interpreter of Maladies.

“A Temporary Matter, Jhumpa Lahiri, 1998”
Short Stories for Students
Gale Group, 2003
A study guide for students. Includes background, plot summary and short critical essays.

Related Fiction

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
By Julia Alvarez

Caramelo
By Sandra Cisneros

Diamond Dust: Stories
By Anita Desai

A Passage to India
By E.M. Forster

The Question of Bruno
By Aleksandar Hemon

Empress of the Splendid Season
By Oscar Hijuelos

Who’s Irish?: Stories
By Gish Jen

Lucy
By Jamaica Kincaid

Small Island
By Andrea Levy

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
By Marina Lewycka

Finding the Center
By V.S. Naipaul

The Grandmother’s Tale and Other Stories
By R.K. Narayan

The Death of Vishnu
By Manil Suri

Joy Luck Club
By Amy Tan

For Kids and Teens

No matter where they are—from India to Illinois—or what their experiences—from joyous and laughter-filled to confusing and difficult—the young people in these amazing stories are powerfully and wonderfully influenced by their own rich heritage.

Bindi Babes
By Narinder Dhami
Delecorte, 2004 (Ages 9-13)
Amber, Jazz and Geena don’t have a mother or a father around anymore, so their traditional and meddling aunt comes from India to watch over them, but the girls soon plot to send her packing with hilarious and heartwarming results.

Blue Jasmine
By Kashmira Sheth
Hyperion, 2004 (Ages 11-13)
Twelve-year-old Seema doesn’t think that she’ll ever feel at home in America instead of India, but she comes to learn that the meanings of love and family aren’t dependent on where you live.

Born Confused
By Tanuja Desai Hidier
Scholastic, 2002 (Ages 14 and up)
Sometimes you have to look in unexpected places to find where you are in life.

Homeless Bird
By Gloria Whelan
HarperCollins, 2000 (Ages 12-15)
Thirteen-year-old Koly is married, widowed and abandoned in a city of those just like her where she discovers a gift that enriches her body and soul.

Koyal Dark, Mango Sweet
By Kashmira Sheth
Hyperion, 2006 (Ages 14 and up)
Set in a richly envisioned modern day Mumbai, this is an intriguing story of one teen’s discovery of her own life’s path, despite her parents’ own ideas of what that will be.

Lowji Discovers America
By Candace Fleming
Atheneum, 2005 (Ages 8-11)
When 9-year-old Lowji Sanjana moves with his family to Hamlet, Ill., he has great hopes of having a pet and making friends. His first American expression, “bummer,” describes this experience.

Maya Running
By Anjali Banerjee
Random House, 2005 (Ages 11-14)
It’s hard to fit in when you are the only Indian-born kid in your tiny Canadian town and your beautiful cousin visiting from India steals the heart of the boy on whom you have your heart set.

Premlata and the Festival of Lights
By Rumer Godden
Greenwillow, 1996 (Ages 9-12)
Premlata doesn’t think her poor family in Bengal will be able to celebrate the light festival Diwali; that is until a very special elephant comes along to help them out.

Rani and Sukh
By Bali Rai
Corgi, 2004 (Ages 14 and up)
This modern-day Romeo and Juliet sets its scene in England where two young people fall in love despite the past conflict between their families and the tragedy that it brought about.

Shiva’s Fire
By Suzanne Fisher Staples
FSG, 2000 (Ages 12 and up)
From her birth during a great storm, Parvati has known that she must face temptations and sacrifices in order to become a true servant of the god Shiva.