About The Book
The Namesake depicts the struggles of Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli, first-generation immigrants from West Bengal to the United States, and their American-born children Gogol and Sonia.
The story begins as Ashoke and Ashima leave Calcutta and settle in New York City. Through a series of miscues, their son's nickname, Gogol (named after Russian author Nikolai Gogol), becomes his official birth name, an event that will shape many aspects of his life. The story chronicles Gogol's cross-cultural experiences and his exploration of his Indian heritage, as the story shifts between the United States and India.
My Thoughts
This is one of the best book about our hope for a better life, human pain, joy, love, adventure, and all in one.
The story is simple yet so complicated. All the characters in this novel are so brilliantly written. With her writing, Lahiri is able to create an atmosphere, where you relate to all the characters, not just one, and became empathic about their desire, motivation, pain, and selfishness.
I found myself, laughing, crying, and feeling for them. I was barely able to put this novel down.
Overall, please give this book a try. You won’t be disappointed.
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About the Author
Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London and raised in Rhode Island. Her debut, internationally-bestselling collection, Interpreter of Maladies, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, the PEN/Hemingway Award, The New Yorker Debut of the Year award, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Addison Metcalf Award, and a nomination for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. It was translated into twenty-nine languages.
Her first 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, among other publications.
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