Jhumpa Lahiri

It goes to the credit of Jhumpa Lahiri the Indian American author that whatever she writes , invites attention , appreciation and critical acclaim. ‘The Interpreter of Maladies’ ,her debut collection of short stories , won for her the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Her novel ‘The Namesake’, also made into a film of the same name, depicts the crisis of identity of the protagonist who is named Gogol after the famous Russian author Nikolai Gogol, who happened to be favourite author of protagonist’s father. Her second novel ‘The lowland‘ is the story of two Bengali brothers and a woman . One of the brothers , a suspected Naxalite gets killed in an encounter and his widow becomes the wife of the other brother, who livews in the US. The novel revolves around her life, with the inherent dichotomy, conflict and turmoil within. . I am yet to read ‘ The Unaccustomed Earth‘ ,her second collection of short stories. Her writing style is simple and hence appealing. Her works show a lot of research gone into and observation done. While she has first hand experience of the western way of life, she seems equally well versed in Bengali culture, tradition , thanks to her periodic visits to India and Kolkata along with her parents , who wanted her to get familiar with native culture and way of life. The characters in her works are mostly Indian and therefore easy to relate to. 
Today is her birthday and we wish for her a promising and more prolific writing career !