description: Jhumpa Lahiri's debut story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, took the literary world by storm when it won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000. Fans who flocked to her stories will be captivated by her best-selling first novel, now in paperback for the first time. The Namesake is a finely wrought, deeply moving family drama that illuminates this acclaimed author's signature the immigrant experience, the clash of cultures, the tangled ties between generations.The Namesake takes the Ganguli family from their tradition-bound life in Calcutta through their fraught transformation into Americans. On the heels of an arranged wedding, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli settle in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Ashoke does his best to adapt while his wife pines for home. When their son, Gogol, is born, the task of naming him betrays their hope of respecting old ways in a new world. And we watch as Gogol stumbles along the first-generation path, strewn with conflicting loyalties, comic detours, and wrenching love affairs.With empathy and penetrating insight, Lahiri explores the expectations bestowed on us by our parents and the means by which we come to define who we are.
language: English
title: The Namesake
titlecomplete: The Namesake
characters: Ashoke Ganguli, Ashima Ganguli, Moushumi Mazoomdar, Gogol/Nikhil Ganguli, Maxine, Sonia/Sonali Ganguli
genres: Adult, Indian Literature, Adult Fiction, India, Novels, Literature, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Fiction, Book Club
ratings_count: 264831
places: Cambridge, Massachusetts
awards: awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Orange Prize
category: Fiction Longlist, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Los Angeles Times Book Prize
category: Fiction
publisher: Random House, Inc.