Whereabouts : A novel

Linguists tell us that language isn’t learned , it grows naturally just like how our world depicts itself every time . Intrinsic and instinctive , language is a working organ in our body~ the heart , as it were , of our consciousness. To swap one’s native language for a new one seems therefore , but Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri , has mastered the Italian language skillfully with her silky words , winning her readers’ heart .

Lahiri’s new novel , Whereabouts , was composed in Italian like the essays comprising her last book , In Other Words. It has been translated into English by the author herself ; indeed , the only English sentences Lahiri now writes are translated from Italian.

This ravishing and intriguing novel portrays the lonely existence , in an unnamed place , of an unnamed narrator. Readers know she’s a woman

and a university teacher in her mid 40s . She has virtually no family ,

neither any relationships , just friends who are also nameless and less

frequently characterized .

Whereabouts is a novel in vignettes , each chapter a postcard or a diary entry from an everyday landmark which are typically experienced alone ,

although sometimes highlighting the consolation of strangers.

Though plotless , the novel remains compelling , as a peephole into a mind

questioning itself , as of why it is a living being . What lies behind the

narrator’s unyielding solitude remains obscure . Portraying such a character,

mysteriously adrift in a urban landscape , Whereabouts has a cinematic feeling about the way the novel progresses spatially , each chapter exhibiting

a new place , plotted out as a map rather than a timeline .

To anyone who is a highly voracious reader , I would definitely recommend this book .