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Whereabouts

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Whereabouts

By: Jhumpa Lahiri
Narrated by: Susan Vinciotti Bonito
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Bloomsbury presents Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri, read by Susan Vinciotti Bonito.

'If the antidote to a year of solitude and trauma is art, then this novel is the answer. It is superb’ SUNDAY TIMES
‘A rare kind of literary celebrity' VOGUE
'A hypnotic disappearing act' OBSERVER

The new novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Man Booker Prize-shortlisted author: a haunting portrait of a woman, her decisions, her conversations, her solitariness, in a beautiful and lonely Italian city

The woman moves through the city, her city, on her own.

She moves along its bright pavements; she passes over its bridges, through its shops and pools and bars. She slows her pace to watch a couple fighting, to take in the sight of an old woman in a waiting room; pauses to drink her coffee in a shaded square.

Sometimes her steps take her to her grieving mother, sealed off in her own solitude. Sometimes they take her to the station, where the trains can spirit her away for a short while.

But in the arc of a year, as one season gives way to the next, transformation awaits. One day at the sea, both overwhelmed and replenished by the sun’s vital heat, her perspective will change forever.

A rare work of fiction, Whereabouts – first written in Italian and then translated by the author herself – brims with the impulse to cross barriers. By grafting herself onto a new literary language, Lahiri has pushed herself to a new level of artistic achievement. A dazzling evocation of a city, its captures a woman standing on one of life’s thresholds, reflecting on what has been lost and facing, with equal hope and rage, what may lie ahead.

‘An unusual literary and linguistic feat' NEW YORK TIMES©2018 Jhumpa Lahiri (P)2021 Penguin Random House LLC Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Women's Fiction Italy
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Critic reviews

One of the most interesting American writers at work today ... Whereabouts feels like her answer to Matisse’s cut-outs: she has taken her writing apart and reconstructed it, sparely, to make something new, where silence matters … If the antidote to a year of solitude and trauma is art, then this novel is the answer. It is superb
Elegantly done, a portrait veiled in quiet melancholy, but which still celebrates the unexpected joys of the quotidian, and how much more sharply you can appreciate them when alone
Insightful, elegant prose exposing the faults that make us human
Addictive … Sometimes we’re in the mood for intimate novels exploring the intricacies of human emotion … Quietly mesmerising
So timely … Takes daring and to my mind beautiful risks with structure and plot (ELIZABETH DAY)
Its sentences are honed to minimalist beauty ... The most exciting moments of the novel are when it becomes a novel of thinking, when it dives down into its sharp, provocative fragments (MADELEINE THIEN)
A beautifully poised exploration of an interior life
Each chapter an espresso shot of regret and loneliness … This is a book about belonging and not belonging, place and displacement
Compelling … Whereabouts feels like a movie … Stylish and therapeutic
A quietly bracing work of fiction ... This is arguably Lahiri’s most beautifully written novel
Whereabouts is rendered in short, journal-like fragments so strongly and rightly voiced that other books sound wrong when you turn to them
An utterly compelling and contemplative story, infused with a fascinating character study, whose presence I still can't seem to shake off.
Lahiri writes with subtlety and delicacy
Whereabouts signals a new mode for Lahiri, and a daring transformation ... It feels true and wise to the core
Slim and bewitching … A modern day flaneuse … The author has a talent for capturing the everyday
Evokes fleeting but resonant encounters with Chekhovian efficiency, making ordinary memories seem profound …
Ms Lahiri has taken risks for her craft, and they have paid off, beautifully
Lahiri’s prose is magnetic
A hypnotic disappearing act ... The book’s peculiar magnetism lies in its clash of candour and coyness
An unusual literary and linguistic feat … If, in English, Lahiri is an eye, in Italian, she’s an ear
Glorious … Written with grace and sensitivity … Magnificent
Jhumpa Lahiri’s writing is wonderful in the literal sense: on every page there is something to take your breath away
All stars
Most relevant
This was a beautiful novel. Very impressed by the understated, quiet wander through the life of the protagonist. About 50 scenes of her life at various aspects of her day to day, whether at the coffee bar, swimming pool, dinner party, etc. It is short but really achieves a lot in that space.

Reading was excellent, loved it.

Belissimo

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Felt like I was in the story of this womans life. Beautifully presented and read.

Read beautifully.

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the pros in this was some of the most politically flowing writing that I have heard since Toni Morrison, it pulls you in with such vivid detail that moves like a calm river. there is melancholy in abundance but not in a way that makes you feel heavy, more in a way that allows you to reflect on your own life

like floating above the streets of Italy

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This book was strange indeed. A series of very short reflections, akin to diary entries recounting moments in the life of someone detached from life. Carefully worded, but very dull. No plot. No progression. No personality to engage the reader’s interest. Random thoughts.

I read her book, In altro parole, and found it interesting and well-written. This book, despite some similarities, had a robotic quality that was off-putting.

Accomplished but unengaging.

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I cannot comment as this Audible book was ordered in error but impossible to return as there is no means of cancelling the order despite illogical instructions claiming you just click on the title and then 'click' to return of cancel it. It's only £4.49 but I did not order it!

I did not order this Audible book please refund me

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