Unaccustomed Earth is Lahiri's newest collection of longer short stories. Each of the eight stories are centered around the Bengali family, often first or second generations as we have seen from her in the past. The characters struggle with a sense of belonging and there are also generational and culture clashes, both specific and universal. These themes aren't new for Lahiri, but these stories don't feel like they've been done before. They are fresh, new and I think better than her previous work. The first story is about a daughter and father relationship I found personally touching. I also really like the last 3 stories that become interwoven and end in a way that is both tragic, beautiful and fitting. The middle stories also very good, a few better than others. I wish I could start over and read this fresh again. Brilliant characters and fantastic writing, I loved this book.
"The eight stories in Unaccustomed Earth have in them an emotional wisdom weightier than in Lahiri's first collection, Interpreter of Maladies (1999), which won the Pulitzer Prize, and they contain a more nuanced tightness than her neo-Chekhovian first novel, The Namesake (2003). In the earlier books, identity and blending cultures gave the narratives their shape; the writing was spare, elegant, knowing. Lahiri was praised for her precocity. Accolades piled up. But her new stories are better, stronger—evidence of a writer pushing herself to a deeper level." -- Village Voice
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