Interpreter of Maladies

By: Jhumpa Lahiri

Narrated by: Matilda Novak

Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Pulitzer Prize, Fiction, 2000

With accomplished precision and gentle eloquence, Jhumpa Lahiri traces the crosscurrents set in motion when immigrants, expatriates, and their children arrive, quite literally, at a cultural divide. The nine stories in this stunning debut collection unerringly chart the emotional journeys of characters seeking love beyond the barriers of nations and generations.

A blackout forces a young Indian American couple to make confessions that unravel their tattered domestic peace. An Indian-American girl recognizes her cultural identity during a Halloween celebration while the Pakastani civil war rages on television in the background. A latchkey kid with a single working mother finds affinity with a woman from Calcutta. In the title story, an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors and hears an astonishing confession.

Imbued with the sensual details of Indian culture, these stories speak with passion and wisdom to everyone who has ever felt like a foreigner. Like the interpreter of the title story, Lahiri translates between the strict traditions of her ancestors and a baffling new world.

©2000 Jhumpa Lahiri (P)2000 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

"Moving and authoritative pictures of culture shock and displaced identity." (Kirkus Reviews)
"The crystalline writing in the nine stories of this Pulitzer Prize-winning debut collection dazzles. These sensitive explorations of the lives of Indian immigrants and expatriates touch on universal themes, making them at once specific and broad in their appeal. Narrator Matilda Novak's light voice is fine for stories written by a young woman, and the hint of melody in her reading is typical of Indian voices." (AudioFile)

Wonderful!

Lahiri's Pulitzer prize winner only gets better the more often in is read.

masterpieces of literature

If you appreciate the storytelling quality of greats like William Carlos Williams and George Orwell combined with a cultural richness of Bengali and American heritages, this book will truly deliver. The short stories in this volume combine authentic voice and powerful depth of characters to make even the seemingly most mundane aspect of life been seen anew, turning simple moments into revealers of profound truth.

Fantastic!

Great stories, wonderful writing and good narration. As a kid growing up in a small town in India, I always wondered how the lives of Indians who had moved to America would be like. The simplicity of these stories and the vivid descriptions of subtle emotions give me a wonderful picture of average people courageously voyaging to alien nations in search of a better future for themselves.

An intrepid book of short stories

Although the short stories beckon us to be submerged you will definitely find that some of the stories are more compelling than others and that the style and pace of narration lends its weight to more stories than others.

Good but a confusing audio

The book was interesting and exciting, but the narration was not. I would still recommend the book.

Great stories but...

Great stories, but the reading doesn't designate one story from the other. It takes a while to figurw out one story is finished and we are now listening to a new story. That was not enjoyable

Narration distracting

Like others have said, I'm not a fan of the narration. Several times I wanted to give up on the story but I wanted to know what happened to Elliott.

Please remake this with a native speaker or with someone who does not try to do voices?

Good character and cultural exploration

I read this for a book club, so it was a general choice. It is not something I would have chosen. I am old enough to have followed the origins of Bangladesh so I found the culture and history interesting.
The short story aspect of the chapters made it very readable. Some of the maladies were heart breaking and the stories ended abruptly. I went back on a couple to see if I missed something. The stories got better toward the end (as a lot of writing does). The story about the Jesus bust was not as much a malady as a truly funny story.
The culture built the characters and wove the stories. I would give it a 4/5. If you like character driven stories more than action built stories, you might really enjoy it.

Wonderful

5 stars for the author's prowess. What a wonderful collection of open ended short stories. I loved the stories. The stories are wonderful and enjoyable, some sad, some pleasant. These stories hit close to home as a Bengali American, totally relatable.
Overall 3 stars because I hated the narrator as she mispronounced so many simple Indian pronunciations. Also like there aren't any Indian narrators that could have been used for a more authentic feel?

Unremastered audio

This performance has not been remastered for Audible and retains the awkward cuts from the end of the disks it was recorded too. This is completely subpar and I will be returning what otherwise would have been an otherwise masterful collection.