“Unaccustomed Earth” by Jhumpa Lahiri (U.S.)

Review

Readers loved this collection of short stories, which they described as a gentle and easy read. One reader couldn’t put the book down, reading one short story after the other! They liked the fact that each story dealt with day-to-day issues of family life, work and relationships. They found it easy to transpose themselves into the different characters’ lives and situations, and said they found parts of the stories totally relatable. They also agreed that although these stories were primarily taking place within the Bengali community in the U.S., similar things could happen in their own or other cultures. Readers described the writing style as expectant and the language beautiful. They found the descriptions of people and places highly evocative. One reader preferred the stories told in third-person narrative finding those told in first-person a bit too up-close-and-personal for her liking. Overall, it averaged a 9 out of 10.

Synopsis

Beginning in America, and spilling back over memories and generations to India, “Unaccustomed Earth” explores the heart of family life and the immigrant experience. Eight short stories – longer and richer than any Jhumpa Lahiri has yet written – take us from America to Europe… Read more

Story Connector Literature Circle (Oct 2016-Sep 2017)

• Book Club Season 20
• Self-Help Spring Season 2017
• Summer Reading Group 2017

PLUS

One-off discussions
“Unaccustomed Earth” by Jhumpa Lahiri – Oct 2016
“One Night, Markovitch” by Ayelet Gundar-Goshan (Israel) – Jan 2017
“The Discreet Hero” by Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru) – May 2017

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From October 2016 to September 2017, Nicola tested out a new Story Connector Literature Circle. The idea behind this reading group came from her desire to take her two passions – world literature and personal development – and offer them in a combined package. Nicola was also fascinated by the many reasons WHY we read and wanted to explore them further with a group of like-minded readers.

The role of Story Connector in a Literature Circle is to try to find connections between the story and the outside world. This means connecting what we read with our own life, to what happens at work or in the community, to similar events at other times and places, or to other books we have read.

Nicola says author Ursula K. Le Guin sums up her reason for reading when she said: We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.