Unaccustomed Earth

In Jhumpa Lahiri's beautifully crafted stories about Bengali families in America, the sense of cultural and emotional dislocation is never far from the surface.

A father visits his daughter in Seattle to get to know his grandson, but confounds her when he says he won't be staying; an older sister's indulgent habit of buying her brother alcohol has long-term, bitter consequences for all the family; a flatmate cannot help but get involved in a woman's secretive, unravelling relationship; a couple at a wedding have a terrible falling-out and a curiously moving rapprochement.

The final three stories are interlinked by two characters called Hema and Kaushik. They meet as children and then not again until many years later, purely by chance. Lahiri beautifully and carefully explores the deep emotional ties that bind different races, cultures, generations and memories.