The Namesake (Houghton Mifflin)
Jhumpa Lahiri, who won the Pulitzer Prize for her stories, defines her beliefs about writing: directness, simplicity, reality and emotional truth are her guideposts. How appropriate then that India-born Gogol, the hero of this new novel, should want to change his name. Gogol, after all, is the writer whose name is synonymous with fantasy, indirection, satire and surprise.
Read an excerpt from The Namesake.