Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

In a series of short stories, Jhumpa Lahiri explores what it is like to be a well educated, reasonably prosperous and successful American of Asian Indian extraction in a land that is of one’s birth and yet a foreign land notwithstanding. The characters of the stories seem always to be searching, restless in their struggle to find an identity, a place, a sense of belonging that grows both from the land around them and from what remains inside themselves. Alienation prevails or is overcome as the young men and women of these stories struggle to find their place in family, land, and nationality, in short, in unaccustomed earth.

Submitted by D. L Sebly, staff

Read to celebrate Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month in May

Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month was enacted by Public Law 102-450 on October 28, 1992. The purpose of the law was to honor the achievements of Asian/Pacific Americans and to recognize their contributions to the United States. May was selected for the recognition because two significant events in history took place in that month: Japanese immigrants first arrived in the United States on May 7, 1843, and the transcontinental railroad was completed on May 10, 1869 (Golden Spike Day).

Try these stories with Asian American and Pacific Islander protagonists:
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri Find this book in our catalog
The Love Wife: a Novel by Gish Jen Find this book in our catalog
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan Find this book in our catalog
Shimura Trouble by Sujata Massey Find this book in our catalog
The Descendants: a Novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings Find this book in our catalog.

The US Census Bureau lists over twenty-five Asian and Pacific Islander groups. The larger groups include: Vietnamese, Chinese, Filipinos, Indian, Pakistani, Korean, Japanese, Cambodian, Laotian, Indonesian, Thai, Burmese, Malaysian, Taiwanese, Sri Lanka, Bangladeshi, and a variety of Pacific Islanders from the Hawaiian Islands, Polynesian Islands, and New Zealand. Click here for details of The Asian/Pacific Heritage Association.