Unaccustomed Earth

Unaccustomed Earth is the second short-story collection by the Bengali-American writer Jhumpa Lahiri, following Interpreter of Maladies and The Namesake. The original English edition was published by Knopf in 2008, and it immediately topped The New York Times bestseller list for fiction; that same year it was awarded the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award directly from the shortlist. The book consists of five short stories and one novella in three parts, divided into two sections, "Unaccustomed Earth" and "Hema and Kaushik." The title story follows Ruma as she faces the small, intricate emotions stirred by her father's visit after her mother's death; the postcards her father later sends and his newly begun life bring to the surface both the unspoken love and the distance between father and daughter. "Hell-Heaven," "A Choice of Accommodations," "Only Goodness," and "Nobody's Business" approach different relationships—married couples, siblings, housemates—to write about suspicion, misunderstanding, support, and loss. The second half—"Once in a Lifetime," "Year's End," and "Going Ashore"—uses alternating perspectives to tell the story of Hema and Kaushik, from their meeting as adolescents to their reunion and love in middle age and their ultimately tragic end. The work focuses on the lives of second-generation Indian immigrants in Europe and America, from Mumbai to Seattle, from Calcutta to Rome, writing about their choices and assimilation between two cultures, and also about the conflicts and knots that arise with their first-generation immigrant parents from differences in outlook.