Roman Stories

"The nine stories in Jhumpa Lahiri’s first collection since she switched to writing in Italian powerfully convey her characters’ struggles to find their place in the world and overcome their painful sense of being outsiders. This pervasive sense of foreignness and being caught between two worlds strikes not just the refugees and immigrants Lahiri writes about with such compassion as they strive to gain a toehold in a xenophobic society, but also lifelong Romans and privileged American expats too. Elegantly written and largely translated by the author – who herself straddles several cultures and languages – Roman Stories presents an affecting view of an often cruelly unwelcoming world."