Spring '08 MELUS Announcements

The University of Connecticut, Department of English seeks candidates for the managing editor of MELUS, the journal for Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, to assist in the organization, formatting, and production of the journal. Other duties: edits, proofreads, checks facts; tracks subscriptions and payments using, responds to mail, communicates with evaluators/ authors, supervises student workers. MELUS website.: http://english.uconn.edu/affiliated_programs/melus_docs/melus.html

Min Qual: BA in Jour., Engl, Comm. or related field; 2-5 yrs writing/editing experience w/ general publications, academic and/or other research-based journals/publications; familiarity w/ design/production of printed publications; excellent proofreading, editing, copy-editing skills.

Preferred Qual: MA or PhD in English, Journalism, Communications, or Related Field; knowledge of MLA style; background in editing academic publications; familiarity with multiethnic literature of the US or Am Lit; knowledge of editing/formatting programs, graphic design/journal layout and/or web design; good interpersonal, communication, organizational skills; ability to expand computer skills.

One year position starting mid-June – mid July. Possible renewal. Salary low to mid-40s. Send cover letter describing applicable experience and skills, resume, 3 recommendation letters with full contact information, and proof of experience (such as a sample publication edited or other work samples) to Robert Tilton, Head, Department of English, MELUS, 215 Glenbrook Road, U-4025, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269-4025. Consideration of candidates will begin on immediately and continue until the position is filled. The University of Connecticut actively solicits applications from minorities, women, and people with disabilities. # 2008476. You may also contact the editor-in-chief, Martha Cutter, Martha.Cutter@uconn.edu with questions.

Spring '08 Book Announcements

W.W. Norton & Co announces the release the much anticipated: Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, & Beyond,

Edited by Tina Chang, Nathalie Handal and Ravi Shankar
Foreword by Carolyn Forché.

Come celebrate with us on Friday, April 25th, 2008, 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm
at The Rubin Museum, New York City

Rubin Museum of Art · 150 West 17th Street, New York, NY 10011 · 212.620.5000
http://www.rmanyc.org/index.xml?context=/

Look out for readings nationally and internationally…
www.nathaliehandal.com

A landmark anthology, providing the most ambitious, far-reaching collection of contemporary Asian and Middle Easter poetry available.

“This extraordinary, library-in-one-volume: what a resource! Those to whom poetry is essential as the supreme use of language will find the work of many poets they have never before come to, and those readers who have limited themselves to prose have the opportunity to discover how the poet outreaches everything prose can illuminate in who and what we are, no matter where, on the map. Nine thematic groupings of the work bring us wonderfully, almost perilously close to ultimate experience in childhood, love, war, exile, the inextricable relations between politics and the personal, the tragic and the ironic, the wisdom in sorrow and humor, that only the most intense imagination can plumb. That of the poet. The realm of imagination is one. This anthology gives entry to its vast expression in the Middle East and Asia, including the changing sensibilities of poets in the ever-growing world of immigration. Assembled here not the Tower of Babel, but the astonishment and subtlety inherent in many languages and their experimental modes to expand the power of words. The introductions to each section offer perceptions engagingly, against which to place one's own readings. The editors have boldly envisaged and compiled a beautiful achievement for world literature.”
—Nobel Laureate, Nadine Gordimer

“Language for a New Century is a symphonic sweep of beckoning cries, praises, prayers, curses, ruminations and revelations. An ensemble rich with diverse voices, here the old and the new converge, and something wholly human and futuristic emerges—something that possesses a robust lyricism—shining its light, its illuminated certainty into the twenty-first century. This marvelous anthology assembles a multitude of voices intent on a purposeful, deep singing.”
—Pulitzer Prize Winner, Yusef Komunyakaa

“This rich collection of poetry from Asia, the Middle East, and other parts of the world, fills a huge gap in our cultural heritage. It is a formidable achievement, and an important contribution to our education.”
—Howard Zinn, People’s History of the United States

“Read Language for a New Century as you would a field guide to the human condition in our time, a poetic survival manual. . . . If, as Milosz wrote, “posterity will read us in an attempt to comprehend what the twentieth century was like,” then this collection will be read to know the beginning of the twenty-first.”
—Carolyn Forché

*
Language for a New Century celebrates the artistic and cultural forces flourishing today in the East, bringing together an unprecedented selection of works by South Asian, East Asian, Middle Eastern, and Central Asian poets as well as poets living in the Diaspora. Some poets, such as Mahmoud Darwish and Bei Dao, are acclaimed worldwide, but many more will be new to the reader. The collection includes 400 unique voices from 55 countries writing in 40 different languages—political and apolitical, monastic and erotic—that represent a wider artistic movement that challenges thousand-year-old traditions, broadening our notion of contemporary literature.

Each section of the anthology—organized by theme rather than national affiliation—is preceded by a personal essay from the editors that introduces the poetry and invokes the readers to examine their own identities in light of these powerful poems. In an age of violence and terrorism—often predicated by cultural ignorance—this anthology is a bold declaration of shared humanness and devotion to the transformative power of art.


Harlem Crossroads:Black Writers and the Photograph in the Twentieth Century

Sara Blair

"[A] remarkable accomplishment...Worthwhile for these illustrations alone, the snapshots from the now distant past preserved forgotten Harlem tableaus...And when you factor in the ingenious fashion in which Sara Blair matches these pictures with the works of African-American literary giants, Harlem Crossroads adds up to a masterpiece making a noteworthy cultural contribution."

--Kam Williams, African American Literature Book Club

"Sara Blair's Harlem Crossroads is an important addition to the body of literature that currently exists about Harlem. It brilliantly illuminates the complex relationship between photographic representation and race, and adds new insight into the ways in which this one black community has figured in both the critical and public imaginations. Harlem Crossroads is a tour de force."

--Dawoud Bey, Columbia College Chicago

Read the Introduction online, click here:http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8510.html

Julie Haenisch
Senior Text Promotion Manager
Princeton University Press
41 William Street
Princeton, NJ, 08540-5237
www.press.princeton.edu http://www.press.princeton.edu/
T 609.258.6856
F 609.258.1335
julie_haenisch@press.princeton.edu



Heroes, Lovers, and Others The Story of Latinos in Hollywood

Clara E. Rodríguez

"Rodriguez's cultural and ethnic history traces the work of Latino actors in American film from the silent era to today. Although the Fordham University professor's specialty is sociology and her research is compiled from clip files and an assortment of secondary sources, her smooth writing and passion for the topic make this a worthy introduction to Latino film studies."
—Publishers Weekly

Heroes, Lovers, and Others tells the fascinating history of Latino actors in American film from the silent era to today. Rodriguez examines such Latino legends as Desi Arnaz, Dolores del Rio, Rita Hayworth, Raquel Welch, Anthony Quinn, Selma Hayek, and Antonio Banderas. More than just a collection of celebrity stories, this book explores the attitudes, cultural conditions, and assumptions that have influenced the portrayal of Latinos in film as well as their reception by the public.

Heroes, Lovers, and Others is a comprehensive volume packed with carefully researched information and analysis for both students and cinema enthusiasts alike.

2008 paper 272 pp.; 57 halftones 978-0-19-533513-2 $19.95

Clara E. Rodríguez is Professor of Sociology, Fordham University. She is currently at work on an update of the classic Coser, Kadushin and Powell text, Books: The Culture and Commerce of Publishing, which will be published by Stanford University Press. She has also been a consultant to a number of television shows and documentaries, most recently, "Dora, the Explorer" and "Sesame Street."

Order from your favorite online retailer: bn.com, amazon.com, powells.com

Please contact Allison Finkel at Oxford University Press with any questions:
Direct: 212.726.6018
Email: allison.finkel@oup.com

Spring '08 Call for Papers or Proposals

Inaugural Conference of the Interdisciplinary Research Group

“E Pluribus Unum? — Ethnic Identities
in Processes of Transnational Integration in the Americas”

October 8 - 11, 2008
ZiF (Center for Interdisciplinary Research), Bielefeld University, Germany

The age of globalization has spawned a renewed focus on political and cultural negotiations in what one might call with Bourdieu the field of identity politics. This development manifests itself throughout the American hemisphere: new indigenous movements have contested post-colonial forms of political representation in Ecuador and Bolivia; the debates on ecological consequences of industrialization and on intellectual property rights have put indigenous groups from the Amazonian region on international agendas; large numbers of people have been mobilized for and against immigration reform in the U.S.; and so-called “ethnic minorities” may decide the current electoral process in the United States. In current academic discussions, concepts like multiculturalism, new ethnicities, creolization, hybridity, mestizaje, diasporas, and “post-ethnicity” articulate positionings vis à vis these developments, profoundly changing our understanding of “ethnicity.”

This renewed focus on ethnic identity demonstrates the need for a comprehensive and interdisciplinary model of analysis that incorporates the complexity of identity constructions in the context of transnational integration. The Inter-American Research Group at the Bielefeld Center for Interdisciplinary Research aims to contribute to an understanding of key factors in the field of identity politics, of the changing semantics of ethnicity, as well as of the cultural practices of identity construction. How are identity-shaping strategies and discourses translated into everyday practices and how do social elites, political institutions, businesses, the media, and agents of civil society (public intellectuals, filmmakers, writers, artists, educators, etc.) mediate between local, national, and transnational horizons of interaction?

In order to elucidate – in the context of inter-American transnationalism – the role of ethnicity in the field of identity politics, the inaugural conference will focus on the following three areas:

Conceptualizing the Field of Identity Politics
Constellations of social and cultural agents in ethnic negotiations and conflicts
Articulations of identity discourses; the positioning of self and non-self
Processes of translation between discourses and cultural practices
Narrations and performances of ethnic identities

Transnationalism and Ethnic Identity
Migration, ethnic diasporas, and translocal communities
Emergence of new ethnicities
De- and re-territorializations and the horizons of interaction of ethnic agents
Ethnic representations in transnational media

Ethnicity in/and Conflict
The use and misuse of ethnicity as a resource (or: the expediency of ethnicity)
Ethnic communities, neo-tribalization, and inter-ethnic competition
Postcolonial backgrounds of inter-ethnic conflicts
Intersections of ethnic, class, gender, religious, regional, and/or national identities

One-page proposals for 30-minute papers (in English or in Spanish) should be e-mailed by April 30, 2008 to: mailto:Daniela.Opitz@uni-bielefeld.de.

Conference participants may apply for partial funding of accommodation costs and travel expenses.

Organizers: Prof. Dr. Josef Raab (American Studies, University of Duisburg-Essen), JunProf. Dr. Sebastian Thies (Latin American Studies and Media Studies; Bielefeld University), Dr. Olaf Kaltmeier (Sociology, Bielefeld University)



Antípodas: Journal of Hispanic Studies

Trujillo, Trauma, Testimony: Mario Vargas Llosa, Julia Alvarez, Edwidge Danticat, and other writers on Hispaniola

Edited by Marta Caminero-Santangelo (University of Kansas) and Roy C. Boland Osegueda (La Trobe University)

Antipodas invites the submission of original papers dealing with literaryrepresentations of the era of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, dictator of theDominican Republic from 1930-61, for a special issue: "Trujillo, Trauma,Testimony." Manuscripts which consider the novels In the Time of theButterflies, by Julia Alvarez, The Feast of the Goat, by Mario VargasLlosa, and The Farming of Bones, by Edwidge Danticat, either singly or incomparison with each other, are especially welcome, as are approacheswhich employ theories of cultural and historical trauma or of thetestimonio genre. Discussions of other literary texts and testimoniosrepresenting Trujillo's dictatorship, including the 1937 massacre at hisorders of Haitians within the Dominican-Haitian border, are also invited.

Articles should be submitted via email as an attachment. Use the title ofyour paper as the file name of the attachment. A cover letter containingthe author’s name, full postal address and e-mail address is required. Theformat must be in accordance with the standard system of the latest MLAStyle Manual. The document must be in Word, Times New Roman, font size 12(including bibliography, notes and quotes), double spaced, A4 page sizewith one inch (2.5cm) margins all round. Use only one space after allpunctuation. Numbered superscripts and their notes must be manually typedout (do NOT use automatic endnotes or automatic footnotes). Do not usepage headers. Use no special formatting and turn off any custom "style"settings. Articles should have a minimum of 4,500 words and not exceed6,000 words (including footnotes) and can be in English, Spanish orFrench. Footnotes should be kept to a maximum of 10, and not exceed 5lines each. Avoid essay-like notes that detract from the primary text. Allnotes must appear at the end of the article before the bibliography.Please submit articles via email attachment no later than June 30th , 2008.

Articles and requests for further information should be sent to both:camsan@ku.edu and editor@antipodas.com.au

Antipodas is an international, peer-reviewed publication. For furtherinformation please visit the website www.antipodas.com.auMarta Caminero-SantangeloAssociate Professor, EnglishUniversity of Kansashttp://martacamsan.tripod.com/



MOURNING ZUCKERMANA

Call for Papers for a Special Issue of PHILIP ROTH STUDIES

Philip Roth's 2007 novel, EXIT GHOST, borrows its title from the repeatedstage direction in Act I, Scene I of Shakespeare's HAMLET - a stagedirection that is preceded by Horatio's plea: "Stay! speak, speak! I chargethee, speak!" Readers may likely feel the same way about Zuckerman whoappears, in Roth's play-within-the-play, by novel's end to be "Gone forgood." Roth's so-called alter-ego has reflected on the contemporary Americanlandscape since 1979, when Roth introduced Nathan Zuckerman as theup-and-coming writer already plagued by questions of legacy andsignificance, loss and historical tragedy in THE GHOST WRITER. Now, afternearly three decades featuring Zuckerman's fraught sense of the writer'sposition in the world, EXIT GHOST seems to be his final farewell.

For this fall 2009 special issue, PHILIP ROTH STUDIES seeks articles between4,000 and 8,000 words in length, and shorter note-length pieces notexceeding 2,500 words on the topic "Mourning Zuckerman." This special issuewill not only consider the loss of Zuckerman, who holds a special placewithin Roth's oeuvre, but also it will consider Zuckerman as a figurehimself perpetually in mourning. Possible topics could include, but are not limited to:

* EXIT GHOST as a final, or finalizing, text
* Nathan Zuckerman's mourning and/ or mourning Nathan Zuckerman
* The retirement of Roth's alter ego
* The relationship between other later novels, such as EVERYMAN, andEXIT GHOST
* The metaphor of illness in the Zuckerman novels
* The symbolic or narrative "deaths" of Zuckerman
* Zuckerman's failed romantic or familial relationships
* Zuckerman's narrative style, or narrative style as a function of Zuckerman
* Zuckerman's evolution as both a storyteller and fictionalprotagonist

Manuscripts must be prepared according to the MLA STYLE MANUAL, 2nd ed.(1998) by Joseph Gibaldi and should contain endnotes rather than footnotes.Address electronic submissions via email (as attached Word files) to:

Aimee Pozorski, Guest Editor, Central Connecticut State Univeristy(pozorskia@mail.ccsu.edu)andMiriam Jaffe-Foger, Co-editor, Rutgers University(miribird@eden.rutgers.edu)

Submission Deadline for Abstracts: July 31, 2008 Submission Deadline for Accepted Articles: December 30, 2008

We will respond to every submission and give notice of accepted abstracts by August 15, 2008. Acceptance of final essays is left to the discretion of theco-editors following a rigorous revision process during the spring of 2009.


2008 AIHA Conference
CALL FOR PAPERS41st Annual Conference

American Italian Historical Association
New Haven, Connecticut
Southern Connecticut State University And Courtyard by Marriot
6-8 November 2008

"Small Towns, Big Cities: The Urban Experience of Italian Americans"

The 41st conference of AIHA will investigate the urbanexperience of Italian Americans in its many facets. Papers on all topics welcome, especially those concerned with the following:

-The histories of neighborhoods
-Patterns of immigration and settlement in towns andcities
-Class mobility
-Flight from city to suburb
-Transnational urbanism
-Adaptation to city life
-Religious processions
-Street-corner society
-Social clubs and mutual aid societies
-Urban political life
-Forms of urban leisure (music, sports, clubs)
-The redefinition of Italian
-American identities
-The death and marketing of Little Italies
-Italian American beatnik culture and urbanity
-Music and urban locales
-Urban space and place
-Underworld genealogies
-Italian American intellectuals and urban places
-Ethnic intersections and successions
-Italian American language in the city
-Cultural and aesthetic representations of the city (film, dance, theatre, visual arts)

Proposals for papers should have titles and be no morethan one typed page in length. Proposals for panelsand other presentations should include titles and beno more than two typed pages. A brief biography ofeach presenter and participant must be included withhis/her affiliation, address, telephone number andemail address.

Special equipment for Powerpoint, DVD/Videopresentations, etc., must be requested as part of theproposal. We cannot guarantee equipment if requestsare made later in the organization process. Thoseinterested in serving as chair or commentator should notify the program chair by May 1.Limited travel subsidies are available for graduatestudents giving presentations; see website.

All presenters must be members of the American Italian Historical Association. For membership details, seethe AIHA website at www.aihaweb.org

Membership dues and proposals should be sent to:

The Calandra Italian American Institute,
Queens College/CUNY,
25 W. 43rd, 17th Floor,
New York, New York, 10036.

Proposals will not be considered ifpresenters/participants have not paid their dues byMay 1, 2008.

Please email proposals to: calandra@qc.edu.In the subject line, please write: "AIHA New HavenProposal."Confirmation of proposals will be by email. Those nothaving access to email should send proposals to The Calandra Institute (address above).www.aihaweb.org

Spring '08 Announcements

Announcing Our 24th Annual Symposium on African American Culture & Philosophy Held in conjunction with PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

“(Re)Visioning the Black Caribbean: Spaces, Places, & Voices”

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Myriam Chauncey, Louisiana State University
Stewart Center • Purdue University • West Lafayette, IN 47906
November 6-8, 2008

Plenary Speakers:
Dr. Carole Boyce-Davies, Cornell University—Anglophone
Dr. Françoise Lionnet, UCLA—Francophone
Dr. William Luis, Vanderbilt University-Hispanophone

We are seeking individual papers and panel submissions on topics related to (Re)Visioning the Black Caribbean. We particularly welcome complete panel submissions with discussants. All presentations are to be in the English language.

In addition to papers on various aspects of (Re)Visioning the Black Caribbean, we seek papers and panels focused on Afro-Latin/American Research.

Individual abstracts should be 250 words or less and panel abstracts should be 750 words or less. Abstracts should be submitted by Thursday, May 1st, 2008. Please include, for all participants, a five line biography with institutional affiliation and e-mail addresses.


Send (Re)Visioning the Black Caribbean Submissions to:
Dr. Antonio D. Tillis
24th Annual Symposium
Beering Hall, Room 6182,
100 North University Street,
West Lafayette, IN 47907
Email: https://outlookweb.marshall.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=0352bdb773024ab4b8aae2fbdfee9eea&URL=mailto%3aaasrc%40purdue.edu

If sending by electronic mail, please use “Symposium Abstract— Language Group A, F, or H” as the subject line.
For additional information about the Center and details about the (Re)Visioning the Black Caribbean symposium,
visit our website at https://outlookweb.marshall.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=0352bdb773024ab4b8aae2fbdfee9eea&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.cla.purdue.edu%2facademic%2fidis%2fafrican-american%2findex.htm

Registration Fee for the 24th Annual Symposium:
$75.00 for faculty and guest attendees
$50.00 for students


From: Frances Smith Foster [mailto:ffoster@emory.edu] Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 3:28 PMTo: melus@marshall.eduCc: Rodier, KatharineSubject: Announcement for newsletter

I have edited what I think is the first collection of texts by antebellum African Americans for African Americans about love and marriage in African America. I believe it can change our understanding of courtship, love, marriage and family values. The collection draws from a variety of sources ranging from folk rhymes, songs, and poems to letters, memoirs, short stories and newspaper advice-to-the-love-lorn columns. The volume is titled LOVE AND MARRIAGE IN EARLY AFRICAN AMERICA published by University Press of New England and can be purchased at bookstores or on-line.


Pan African Literary Forum

From July 3rd to the 18th, the Pan African Literary Forum will gather together established and emerging writers from Africa, the Diaspora and around the world for a series workshops, lectures and panel discussions uniquely focused on issues of craft and literary professionalism. Please find attached a copy of our flier, where you can find our all-star lineup of faculty and special guests. The PALF is also running two scholarships contests - one for writers of African descent and one open to all writers - that offer an all-expenses-paid to trip to the conference. More details about the conference and application guidelines for the contest can be found on our website: www.panafricanliteraryforum.org.

Spring '08 Book Reviews

Unaccustomed Earth By Jhumpa Lahiri: A Note

Jhumpa Lahiri's new collection of short stories, titled Unaccustomed Earth, has the span and thematic breadth of a novel, and yet each story is distinct and self-contained. Lahiri's study of displaced lives that started with her first collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies, continues, but undoubtedly, in a deeper and sombre tone. In this book Lahiri, like in her novel, The Namesake, delves into darker territories of family life in dislocated existence. Here her focus is mainly on the second generation of migrants where hybridity is personifies in the number of cross-cultural relationships like those of Ruma-Adam, Pranab-Deborah, Amit-Megan, Sudha-Roger, and so on. Lahiri's eye for detailing the immigrant experience, seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary, is moving. In fact movement is the quintessence of all the stories. In the first story, which gives the name to the collection, Ruma's father, as a world tourist in his old age, decides not to stay put in a place and in the last story the very earth itself is found to move diabolically.

The book I divided into two parts. Part one has five stand-alone stories whereas part two, subtitled "Hema and Kaushik", has three interconnected stories. The story "Hell-Heaven" from part one is the shortest of the collection. Usha, a second-generation migrant, narrates about the visits of a family friend, Pranab "Kaku", to her home when she was a child. It depicts the friendship between Pranab and Usha's mother, Aparna, Pranab's eventual marriage with an American named Deborah, and Aparna's disapproval of the match. The story shows the strain in the relationship between Usha and Aparna because of their differing lifestyles as American and Indian respectively. Aparna sustains herself in the strong belief that Deborah will one day leave Pranab. Years later, it is Pranab who leaves divorces Deborah when he falls in love with a married Bengali woman. Deborah surprises Aparna by revealing to her that all the years of her marriage she had been secretly jealous of her because Aparna knew a part of her husband's life from which she had been shut out by Pranab. But a still darker confession comes to the fore – the confession of Aparna's jealousy, not made to Deborah but to her daughter, Usha. The horror of it shows the depth of Aparna's desires and her intense angst, something that brings the story into a new perspective. It sets the mood for the volume.

Secrets and surprises loom at every corner and yet nothing is apparent. Unexpectedly, Ruma discovers through a misplaced letter the secret of her father's new love interest after the death of her mother in the short story "Unaccustomed Earth." Unexpectedly, a couple rediscover their love for each other in a dorm room at an old friend's wedding in the short story "A Choice of Accommodations." Amit and Megan's marriage has almost "disappeared" as they have transformed themselves into just parents of two growing girls and yet they surprise themselves in the weekend of from parenting. In the short story "Only Goodness", Lahiri explores sibling relationship in diasporic life in such a resonant way that even in a brief space she can be dense in the intricacies of depiction. Sudha finds herself helpless as she watches her brother, Rahul, succumb to alcoholism and the gulf between him and their parents increasingly widens. She is reluctant and incapable to tackle the situation, and takes an escapist view of it. But some years later when Rahul comes to London to visit his newborn nephew, she sees signs of his redemption. And yet again Rahul betrays her belief leaving her no choice but to reject him finally. In the last story of part one, "Nobody's Business", Paul, an American housemate of Sang/Sangeeta, finds himself getting involved in the sticky web of love-relationships of Sang, her Egyptian boyfriend Farouk, and Diedre. Paul is a confidante of both Sang and Diedre, and unwittingly becomes Farouk's rival.

The first story of part two, "Once in a Lifetime", is narrated by Hema, whereas the second story, "Year's End", has Kaushik as the narrator. "Once in a Lifetime" deals with the tragic death of Kauhik's mother due to cancer. When Kaushik's family moves back to America from India, they stay with Hema's family for sometime until new house is got. Hema, when six years old, had not liked Kaushik, but now as a thirteen year old, she is infatuated by him. She also learns to appreciate the sophistication of Kaushik's mother. Then one day Kaushik confides to her about his mother's illness, revealing the pain that hides behind the glamour of their life. The next story, "Year's End", is about Kaushik's coming to terms with the presence of his step-mother, Chitra, who is nearer his age than his father's, and lacks all the elegance that his own mother possessed. More intriguing is Kaushik's growth of affection for his kid step-sisters, Rupa and Piu, until the girls retrieve from its hiding place the taped box that concealed Kaushik's mother's photographs purposely banished from sight. The girls' mischief enrages Kaushik. All affection drains out of him and he acts emotionally and rather cruelly to abandon the girls alone in the house. Far away he digs the earth and buries the box.

The thread does not end here. A chance meeting in Rome, when Hema and Kaushik are in their late thirties, ignites a ephemeral but passionate relationship. The last story, "Going Ashore", is an excess – an excess that shows Lahiri's power of imagination, an excess that consummates the theme, an excess that would have been too sweet had it not been tragic, an excess that has the air of inevitability. Hema and Kaushik's union comes at a time when they are on the verge of settling down – Hema in marriage with Navin, and Kaushik in his new job in Hong Kong. They separate. Hema goes to India and Kaushik, on a holiday, to Khao Lak in Thailand. But now it is the turn of the continental plates of the earth to shift. The last few pages lead excruciatingly to the inevitability of the tsunami. Thereafter, the narration reverts from third person to the first person of Hema, bringing the story and the book towards its closure. Lahiri revels in the craft of story telling. The book is a tour-de-force and a document of the age and time seen through the human experience and how!