The Lowland Hardback - 2013

Media reviews

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
 
A Globe and Mail Best Book
A TIME Best Book
An NPR Best Book

SHORTLISTED 2013 – Man Booker Prize
FINALIST 2013 – National Book Award
FINALIST 2014 – Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction

“An absolute triumph. Lahiri uses a gorgeously rendered Calcutta landscape to profound effect.... As shocking complexities tragedies, and revelations multiply, Lahiri astutely examines the psychological nuances of conviction, guilt, grief, marriage, and parenthood, and delicately but firmly dissects the moral conundrums inherent in violent revolution. Renowned for her exquisite prose and penetrating insights, Lahiri attains new heights of artistry—flawless transparency, immersive intimacy with characters and place—in her spellbinding fourth book and second novel. A magnificent, universal, and indelible work of literature.... Lahiri’s standing increases with each book, and this is her most compelling yet.”
—Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review)

“A moving tale of family ties.... Lahiri’s stories capture dislocation and ambivalence with a unique play of words. The Lowland, set in India and America...is one of the highly anticipated books of the fall.”
—Times of India
 
“Jhumpa Lahiri is a master of making the plainest language do double duty. What appears ordinary and unadorned begins to shimmer with menace as the story unfolds…. The Lowland’s perfectly torqued plot and deep sense of foreboding reminds me most of Kazuo Ishiguro’s deceptively quiet style: a style that allows a complexity of character and the accumulative, sure building of unsentimental, emotional clout… With The Lowland, Lahiri gives us a provoking and affecting meditation on family and loss, the idealism of youth and how it can be volatile, manipulated and ultimately crushed.”
—Lisa Moore, The Globe and Mail
 
“It stops you dead in your reader tracks and demands your all-consuming attention. Her prose, too perfect, so ideal, memorably snakes and fumes the way smoke would if it were coming from your house on fire…. Lahiri can’t help herself, she can only write the most beautiful prose ever to be put on paper.”
—Daniel Scheffler, Edge
 
“Her prose, as always, is a miracle of delicate strength, like those threads of spider silk that, wound together, are somehow stronger than steel.”
—Ron Charles, The Washington Post
 
“A sweeping, ambitious story…. Unsparing and beautifully rendered…. There is no doubt that The Lowland confirms Lahiri as a writer of formidable powers and great depth of feeling, who makes the business of conjuring a story from the chaos of human lives seem quite effortless.”
—Stephanie Merritt, The Guardian
 
“Lahiri’s prose style is legendarily smooth, unshowy, unvarying…. The Lowland gains tremendous power as it goes on. Language takes on the role of time itself. The Lowland feels less like a story being told than a tide slowly going out, gradually, inevitably revealing the shape of what was there all along.”
—Lev Grossman, TIME
 
“[Jhumpa Lahiri] writes clear and unadorned sentences—and their seeming simplicity stands in contrast to the novel’s epic generation-spanning ambition. Lahiri’s ambition pays off: The Lowland is a rich and rewarding read, perfect for an introspective rainy day.”
—Zoe Whittall, National Post

“Lahiri’s...haunting second novel crosses generations, oceans, and the chasms that despair creates within families.... Lahiri’s skill is reflected not only in her restrained and lyric prose, but also in her moving forward chronological time while simultaneously unfolding memory, which does not fade in spite of the years. A formidable and beautiful book.”
—Publishers Weekly