Interpreter of Maladies

Jhumpa Lahiri's Pulitzer Prize-winning short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, is gorgeously illustrated for the first time by Shreya Gupta, exclusively for the Folio Society. Over nine stories, Lahiri deftly explores the tension between tradition and modernity, old and new worlds. The title story, ‘Interpreter of Maladies’ hints at the maladies and misunderstandings that can arise from those tensions. Lahiri’s vividly drawn characters span generations and distances across the Bengali diaspora. We view partition from a distanced child’s perspective in ‘When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine’. In ‘The Blessed House’, we meet Tanima or ’Twinkle‘, who delights in collecting kitsch Christian figurines, embarrassing her husband.