The Lowland: Shortlisted for The Booker Prize and The Women's Prize for Fiction

Description

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2013 and the NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2013. From Subhash's earliest memories, at every point, his brother was there. In the suburban streets of Calcutta where they wandered before dusk and in the hyacinth-strewn ponds where they played for hours on end, Udayan was always in his older brother's sight. So close in age, they were inseparable in childhood and yet, as the years pass - as U.S tanks roll into Vietnam and riots sweep across India - their brotherly bond can do nothing to forestall the tragedy that will upend their lives. Udayan - charismatic and impulsive - finds himself drawn to the Naxalite movement, a rebellion waged to eradicate inequity and poverty. He will give everything, risk all, for what he believes, and in doing so will transform the futures of those dearest to him: his newly married, pregnant wife, his brother and their parents. For all of them, the repercussions of his actions will reverberate across continents and seep through the generations that follow. Epic in its canvas and intimate in its portrayal of lives undone and forged anew, The Lowland is a deeply felt novel of family ties that entangle and fray in ways unforeseen and unrevealed, of ties that ineluctably define who we are. With all the hallmarks of Jhumpa Lahiri's achingly poignant, exquisitely empathetic story-telling, this is her most devastating work of fiction to date.

Jhumpa Lahiri is the author of three previous works of fiction: Interpreter of Maladies, The Namesake and most recently, Unaccustomed Earth. A recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, a PEN/Hemingway Award, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship, she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2012.

A domestic epic that manages to combine the personal and intimate with the political and the public superbly well -- Harry Ritchie * Daily Mail * Sublimely brilliant * Esther Freud * She has an extraordinary power of empathy for her characters and a steady hand for unspooling the knotted threads of their individual motives and histories * Sunday Times * An author, at the height of her artistry, spins the globe and comes full circle * Vogue * Profound ... real and convincing. The characters don't act like people in a novel: they are much closer to real life in their responses, their heartfelt cries of pain -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times * A sweeping, ambitious story... There is no doubt that The Lowland confirms Lahiri as a writer of formidable powers and a great depth of feeling * Observer * She observes the small moments of adapting to a new country particularly beautifully... Cool, measured and beguiling writing * The Times * Poignant story and epic sweep * Tatler * Elegant and thoughtful * Literary Review * Jhumpa Lahiri is an elegant stylist, effortlessly placing the perfect words in the perfect order time and again so we're transported seamlessly into another place ... Every family story is somehow a war story; Lahiri has a talent for coolly illustrating this truth * Vanity Fair * Such is the strength, individuality and vividness of Lahiri's characters, that it's a loss when their voices finally fall silent -- Rachel Hore * Independent on Sunday * Hypnotic ... An excellent example of the art of fiction -- Bharat Tandon * Daily Telegraph * [An] immaculately constructed and a model of lucidity, well deserving of its place on the Man Booker shortlist * Mail on Sunday * A domestic epic that superbly combines the personal and intimate with the political and public * Irish Mail on Sunday * Moving, surprising and utterly compelling ... It's as beautiful as anything you will ever read - it touches your soul ... We're not surprised that Lahiri's work has made the Man Booker shortlist - it certainly gets our vote here * Stylist * Thrillingly nuanced ... Lahiri's most ambitious work to date, brimming with pain and love and all of life's profound beauty * O, The Oprah Magazine * Epic in sweep, especially when combined with the laden, potent themes, the intertwining of politics and sexuality, the cauterizing of emotional wounds and grievances, and the repetition of places and personalities ... Ms Lahiri's prose hums along as efficiently as a well-tuned engine, showing us the melancholy beauty of coastal New England; the surreal perceptions of an immigrant ... And the tension between generations -- Siddhartha Deb * International Herald Tribune * An important novel for Lahiri to have written -- Robert McCrum * Observer * This is the sort of domestic epic that manages to combine the personal and intimate with the political and public superbly well -- Harry Ritchie * Daily Mail * Jhumpa Lahiri is intelligent, astute, informed and genuine ... The Lowland is real. Its emotional intelligence is extraordinarily persuasive, as is the calm, quietly intense Lahiri -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times * Lahiri writes with great emotional precision -- Anjali Joseph * The Times * Her finest work so far -- Michael Gorra * New York Review of Books * Jhumpa Lahiri's new novel is a testament to her abundant talents. No other writer is as adept at conjuring the quotidian texture of her characters' lives and revealing how their choices, often based on cultural expectations, have shaped their fates -- Khaled Hosseini * Best Books of the Year 2013 * The only book I read this year in English is The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri. I had never read anything of hers, and it was a wonderful surprise. Lahiri skilfully shapes the political aspect of her story, effectively conveys the collision of two worlds, and vividly describes campus life in the United States ... In Italy the novel was title La moglie - 'The Wife'. It's one of those rare cases where the publisher's commercially driven decision to use an alternative title actually serves to call the readers' attention to a great literary accomplishment -- Elena Ferrante, Books of the Year * Financial Times *