No.2 Jhumpa Lahiri

http://www.randomhouse.com/kvpa/jhumpalahiri/

Introduction

Jhumpa Lahiri was an Indian American writer and a Pulitzer Prize winner. She was born in London and raised in Rhode Island. Lahiri graduated from Barnard College in 1989 and then received multiple degrees from Boston University. She married in 2001 and lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and two children.

Selected Works

• Interpreter of Maladies, 1999
• Unaccustomed Earth, 2008
• The Namesake , 2003
• "Nobody's Business”, 2001
• "Year's End" (24 December 2007, The New Yorker)

Recognition&Awards

Lahiri’s debut collection of stories, Interpreter of Maladies, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the PEN/Hemingway Award and The New Yorker Debut of the Year. Her novel The Namesake was a New York Times Notable Book, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist and was selected as one of the best books of the year by USA Today and Entertainment Weekly.

Influences

Lahiri is a well-known and respectful Asian American writer who won Pulitzer Prize as well as other important awards in America. Her debut novel, interpreter of Maladies address “sensitive dilemmas in the lives of Indians or Indian immigrants, with themes such as marital difficulties, miscarriages, and the disconnection between first and second generation United States immigrants.” Her works are influential in both American and India. Although Lahiri identifies herself as an American, she focuses on the living conditions of Indian immigrants and their confusion about their identities. Her second collection of short stories, Unaccustomed Earth achieved Number 1 on The New York Times Best seller’s list. She makes the American to pay attention to the lives of Indian Americans as well as other Asian American community. Her success has motivated numerous Asian Americans. (Wikipedia)