Many of you, I am sure, have heard of and read Jhumpa Lahiri. She won a Pulitzer for her first book "The Interpreter of Maladies," and her second book "The Namesake" was a hit and a movie by Mira Nair. She released her third book this year, "Unaccustomed Earth," which is my pick for the best book of 2008. Why?
There is no other writer today, who can capture the extraordinary moments in such "ordinary" lives. While her writing and stories appeal to the Indian immigrant in me (ABCD- inside joke), her work is about much more than race and ritual. It is about what it means to feel in this numbing society, in which we find ourselves. Who would have thought that tales of Bengali housewives or first generation Indian kids experiencing their first crushes would make for such great reading? Ms. Lahiri did, that is who.
If you have not picked up "Unaccustomed Earth," I highly recommend you do so. If you wait a few months, you can buy an edition which says "Winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize." You heard it here first!
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