Join Ashima in her journey through complex Indian situations
Namesake is the brainchild of Jhumpa Lahiri. The story unfolds with Ashima’s grandmother coming to know that Ashima is pregnant. She was very excited when she came to know this and extremely happy as well on the fact that she would have the opportunity to name the family’s first Sahib. As the story unfolds, Ashima and her husband Ashok have yet not decided a name for their baby until a letter arrives from their grandmother.
Join Gogol as he faces the stigma of his name and the situations that he faces
Ashima’s father sends a letter to Baby Boy Ganguli, actually putting up the name as 'baby boy’. But the American bureaucracy demands a name. In a hurry, they put the name 'Gogol’ not realizing the harsh consequences that this name would have in the future. As time passes, Gogol is raised in suburban America. As he grows, he finds his name ridiculous and is reluctant to us it. His awkward name twitches him. He decides to leave behind the inherited values of Bengali lifestyle and starts on his path to find a good life and comes face to face with conflicting loyalties, love and loss along the way.
Will Gogol survive the torture and make a name for himself?
Gogol finds his way through complex situations and still dreams of a perfect life. Grab the book to find out how he goes along his path and will he survive with the stigma of his name?
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Product Details
- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Harpercollins; Film tie-in edition edition (5 March 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0007258917
- ISBN-13: 978-0007258918
- Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 1.5 x 19.8 cm
About the Author
Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London of Bengali parents, and grew up in Rhode Island, USA. Her stories have appeared in many American journals, including the New Yorker. ‘Interpreter of Maladies’, her first published collection, won the Pulitzer Prize 2000 for Fiction, the New Yorker Prize for Best First Book, the PEN/Hemingway Award and was shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Award. Jhumpa Lahiri lives in New York.
Review
‘Extraordinary…a book that spins gold out of the straw of ordinary lives. The calm, pellucid grace of her prose, the sustained stretch of crystal clear writing, its elegant pianissimo tone, pulls the reader from beginning to end in one neat arc. Every detail, every observation, every sentence rings with the clarity of truth. “The Namesake” is a novel that makes its reader feel privileged to be allowed access to its immensely empathetic world.' The Times
‘This is certainly a novel that explores the concepts of cultural identity, of rootlessness, of tradition and familial expectation…but …it never succumbs to the cliches those themes so often entail. Instead, Lahiri turns it into something both larger and simpler: the story of a man and his family, of his life and hopes, loves and sorrows. She has a talent – magical, sly, cumulative – that most writers would kill for.’ Julie Myerson, The Guardian
‘A joy to read.’ Sunday Telegraph
'Gracious…in refined, empathetic prose…each of Lahiri's characters patches together their own identity, making this resonant fable neither uniquely Asian nor uniquely American, but tenderly, wryly human.' Hephzibah Anderson, The Observer
'Impeccably written.' Daily Mail
