Jhumpa Lahiri's debut story collection, Interpreter ofMaladies, took the literary world by storm when it won the PulitzerPrize in 2000. Fans who flocked to her stories will be captivatedby her best-selling first novel, now in paperback for the firsttime. The Namesake is a finely wrought, deeply moving family dramathat illuminates this acclaimed author's signature themes: theimmigrant experience, the clash of cultures, the tangled tiesbetween generations.
The Namesake takes the Ganguli family from their tradition-boundlife in Calcutta through their fraught transformation intoAmericans. On the heels of an arranged wedding, Ashoke and AshimaGanguli settle in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Ashoke does hisbest to adapt while his wife pines for home. When their son, Gogol,is born, the task of naming him betrays their hope of respectingold ways in a new world. And we watch as Gogol stumbles along thefirst-generation path, strewn with conflicting loyalties, comicdetours, and wrenching love affairs.
With empathy and penetrating insight, Lahiri explores theexpectations bestowed on us by our parents and the means by whichwe come to define who we are.