Ok, I do realize this shouldn't function as a criterion when choosing a book, but I'm afraid I picked up Jhumpa Lahiri's "Intepreter of Maladies" because it's rather short :) Unfortunately, time doesn't exactly allow me to start reading massive stuff like "À la recherche du temps perdu" right now, so I've become a short-story fan lately (i.e. consume anything that fits into my daily 80-min commuting time) :).
Anyway, Lahiri's book is an absolute must, not only because it won the Pulitzer prize, but because it captures with so much grace, talent and wit the cultural differences that people from India/Pakistan/Bangladesh have to face when migrating to the West. Themewise, it reminded me of Arundhati Roy (the small, revealing details; the refined characters and their quiet sadness, embedded so well in everyday routines). Structurewise, strangely enough, it reminded me of J.D. Salinger (for most of the above reasons, and maybe perhaps because this volume is also made up of nine stories).
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