March 27, 2023, 1:31pm
Alfred A. Knopf has done it, dropped a little grenade in the timelines this afternoon with the news that it will publish Jhumpa Lahiri’s Roman Stories this October.
The Lahiri-hive was swift to celebrate what will be the first short story collection since 2008’s Unaccustomed Earth. Her 2000 collection Interpreter of Maladies won the Pulitzer Prize.
What we know…
The stories will each explore Rome from one facet or another (or all of them): “metropolis and monument, suspended between past and future, multifaceted and metaphysical.”
Each story was written in Italian (Lahiri was born in London to parents from West Bengal, moved to the U.S. at three, and moved to Italy because she could), and translated by Jhumpa and by Knopf editor Todd Portnowitz. Interessante!
It comes out October 10, or sooner if you’re a good enough book thief.