The Interpreter of Maladies: An intimate summer read set between India and the US

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The magicalInterpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri is a light, touching read for long summer days. Set between the US and India, Lahiri writes nine stories about men, women, and children trying to find love, consolation, or their ambition in a narrative style that’s inviting and tempts you to turn to the next story. Lahiri opens with a short chapter on a Bengali family visiting India from the US. The family selects our protagonist — an interpreter of native Indian languages — to be their guide, but the protagonist finds out he is getting more than what he bargained for. Another story is about an elderly woman whose purpose in life is to sweep the stairs in an apartment building and to sleep under the mailboxes until one day her world turns upside down when the apartment owners contemplate having a proper concierge. This Pulitzer Prizewinning book does not disappoint and will engage the reader to read more of Lahiri’s enchanting text.