Unaccustomed Earth (2008) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Characters/People edit see section history

• Ruma: Main character of "Unaccustomed Earth"
• Adam: Husband of Ruma in "Unaccustomed Earth"
• Akash: Son of Ruma and Adam in "Unaccustomed Earth"
• Mrs. Bagchi: Woman Ruma's father is in a secret relationship with in "Unaccustomed Earth"
• Pranab Chakraborty (Pranab Kaku): Family friend of the main character of "Hell-Heaven"
• Deborah: Woman friend of Pranab Kaku in "Hell-Heaven"
• Amit Sarkar: Main character of "A Choice of Accommodations"
• Megan Sarkar: Wife of Amit in "A Choice of Accommodations"
• Pam Borden: Old, now engaged, friend of Amit's in "A Choice of Accommodations"
• Maya: Twin daughter of Amit and Megan in "A Choice of Accommodations"
• Monika: Twin daughter of Amit and Megan in "A Choice of Accommodations"
• Sudha (Didi): Main character of "Only Goodness"
• Rahul: Younger brother of Sudha, who suffers from alcoholism, in "Only Goodness"
• Elena: Gilfriend of Rahul in "Only Goodness"
• Roger: Husband of Sudha in "Only Goodness"
• Neel: Baby son of Sudha and Roger in "Only Goodness"
• Paul: Main character of "Nobody's Business"
• Sangeeta (Sang): House mate of Paul's in "Nobody's Business"
• Heather: House mate of Paul in "Nobody's Business"
• Charles: Male friend of Sang in "Nobody's Business"
• Farouk (Freddy): Boyfriend of Sang in "Nobody's Business"two-timing, unsociable
• Deirdre: Other girlfriend of Farouk in "Nobody's Business"
• Hema: Narrator of "Once in a Lifetime"
• Kaushik: Family friend of Hema in "Once in a Lifetime", who stays with Hema's family when first arriving in America-Narrator of "Year's End"photographer, never married
• Jessica: Girlfriend of Kaushik in "Year's End"Italian
• Chitra: Wife of Kaushik's father's 2nd marriage (Kaushik's step-mother) in "Year's End"
• Rupa: Daughter of Chitra and step-sister of Kaushik in "Year's End"
• Piu: Daughter of Chitra and step-sister of Kaushik in "Year's End"
• Giovanna: Colleague of Hema in "Going Ashore"
• Navin: Fiancée of Hema in "Going Ashore"
• Julian: Married man that Hema has had an affair with in "Going Ashore"
• Henrik: Man that Kaushik meets in Thailand in "Going Ashore"

Quotes edit see section history

• “But death, too, had the power to awe, she knew this now - that a human being could be alive for years and years, thinking and breathing and eating, full of a million worries and feelings and thoughts, taking up space in the world, and then, in an instant, become absent, invisible.”

  Ruma

• “And he knew that in his own way, with his camera, he was dependent on the material world, stealing from it, hoarding it, unwilling to let it go.”

  Kaushik

• “It was unquestioned that they would not part yet, unquestioned that though they had not seen or thought of each other in decades, not sought each other out, something precious had been stumbled upon, a newborn connection that could not be left unattended, that demanded every particle of their care.”

  the author in describing the connection between Hema and Kaushik

• “She clipped the ribbon with scissors and stuffed the whole thing into the garbage, surprised at how easily it fit, thinking of the husband who no longer trusted her, of the son whose cry now interrupted her, of the fledgling family that had cracked open that morning, as typical and as terrifying as any other.”

  Sudha (Didi)

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• Wasn’t it terrible that after all the work one put into finding a person to spend one’s life with, after making a family with that person, even in spite of missing that person, as Amit missed Megan night after night, that solitude was what one relished most, the only thing that, even in fleeting, diminished doses, kept one sane?

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• But death, too, had the power to awe, she knew this now—that a human being could be alive for years and years, thinking and breathing and eating, full of a million worries and feelings and thoughts, taking up space in the world, and then, in an instant, become absent, invisible.

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• He wanted to shield her from the deterioration that inevitably took place in the course of a marriage, and from the conclusion he sometimes feared was true: that the entire enterprise of having a family, of putting children on this earth, as gratifying as it sometimes felt, was flawed from the start. But these were an old man’s speculations, an old man who was himself now behaving like a child.

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• He did not want to be part of another family, part of the mess, the feuds, the demands, the energy of it. He did not want to live in the margins of his daughter’s life, in the shadow of her marriage. He didn’t want to live again in an enormous house that would only fill up with things over the years, as the children grew, all the things he’d recently gotten rid of, all the books and papers and clothes and objects one felt compelled to possess, to save. Life grew and grew until a certain point. The point he had reached now.

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• There were times Ruma felt closer to her mother in death than she had in life, an intimacy born simply of thinking of her so often, of missing her. But she knew that this was an illusion, a mirage, and that the distance between them was now infinite, unyielding.

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• All his life he’d felt condemned by her, on his wife’s behalf. She and Ruma were allies. And he had endured his daughter’s resentment, never telling Ruma his side of things, never saying that his wife had been overly demanding, unwilling to appreciate the life he’d worked hard to provide.

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• It was not passion that was driving him, at seventy, to be involved, however discreetly, however occasionally, with another woman. Instead it was the consequence of being married all those years, the habit of companionship.

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• Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted, for too long a series of generations, in the same worn-out soil. My children have had other birthplaces, and, so far as their fortunes may be within my control, shall strike their roots into unaccustomed earth. —NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, “The Custom-House”

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• Nobody’s Business PART TWO: HEMA AND KAUSHIK

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• annaprasan.” “Oh that,” she

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• India
• London
• Calcutta
• America
• Rome
• Massachusetts
• Seattle
• Italy
• Cambridge
• Bombay
• Pennsylvania
• Boston
• Wayland
• Europe
• New York
• Hong Kong
• Volterra
• Delhi
• Ithaca
• Brooklyn

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Jhumpa Lahiri (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• ALA Notable Book (2009: Fiction)
• Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature (2009: Adult Fiction)
• Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book (2009: South Asia and Europe)
• Asian American Literary Award (2009)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Add a note to help parents select a book for a child.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › United States › Asian American
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Short Stories › United States
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary