New honour for Jhumpa Lahiri’s book

NEW YORK: Jhumpa Lahiri’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book Interpreter of Maladies has been selected for a major book celebration programme in Chicago. Lahiri’s collection of nine short stories has been named for the ‘One Book, One Chicago’ programme.

Started in 2001, ‘One Book, One Chicago’ is a programme to encourage all Chicagoans to read the same book at the same time and discuss a great piece of literature with friends and neighbours.

The stories in Lahiri’s 2000 Pulitzer Prize-winning book are set in India and the United States and talk about the lives of first and second-generation Indians and their struggle to adapt to the new culture.

Reacting to the book’s selection, Lahiri told the Chicago Sun-Times, “It’s a tremendous honour. I’m thrilled... It’s my first book and it already feels old to me. It’s wonderful to give it new life in this way.”

The Pulitzer winning writer, 39, said :”Many other people who have immigrant histories in their families will tend to connect to the stories, feeling something that they didn’t experience, their parents didn’t experience, but is part of their history as Americans.”