Description

‘Stimulating, elengant, distinctive and thought-provoking’ Sunday Times

From the internationally bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Interpreter of Maladies comes an exquisitely crafted work of fiction. Jhumpa Lahiri sets her gaze on the eternally beautiful city of Rome, illuminating the frailties of the human condition and dissecting lives lived on the margins.

A man recalls a summer party that awakens an alternative version of himself. A couple haunted by a tragic loss return to seek consolation. An outsider family is pushed out of the block in which they hoped to settle. A set of steps in a Roman neighbourhood connects the daily lives of the city’s myriad inhabitants. This is an evocative fresco of Rome, the most alluring character of all: contradictory, in constant transformation and a home to those who know they can’t fully belong but choose it anyway.

Rich with Lahiri’s signature gifts, Roman Stories is a masterful work from one of the finest writers of our time.

Translated from the Italian by Jhumpa Lahiri and Todd Portnowitz

Publisher Review

A writer of formidable powers and great depth of feeling * The Observer * One of the most interesting American writers at work today * The Sunday Times * Lahiri steps back from the action, gets out of the way, so the people and things in her stories can exist the way real things do: richly, ambiguously, without explanation. * Time * A writer of uncommon elegance and poise * The New York Times * Lahiri has a talent for capturing the everyday * Spectator * Jhumpa Lahiri is intelligent, astute, informed and genuine * The Irish Times * Jhumpa Lahiri is an elegant stylist, effortlessly placing the perfect words in the perfect order time and again so we're transported seamlessly into another place * Vanity Fair * Jhumpa Lahiri's writing is wonderful in the literal sense: on every page there is something to take your breath away * Sainsbury's Magazine * Lahiri has an extraordinary voice -- Salman Rushdie Jhumpa Lahiri is the kind of writer who makes you want to grab the next person you see and say "Read this!" She's a dazzling storyteller with a distinctive voice, an eye for nuance, an ear for irony. She is one of the finest short story writers I've read. -- Amy Tan