Nine stories, written in Jhumpa Lahiri's adopted language of Italian. Stories steeped in the moods of Italian master Alberto Moravia and guided, in the concluding tale, by the ineluctable ghost of Dante Alighieri, whose words lead the protagonist toward a new way of life.
Melancholy yet electric ... The fluid transitions between Lahiri’s and Portnowitz’s translations elevate Roman Stories from a grouping of individual tales to a deeply moving whole. By putting many kinds of foreignness together, Lahiri shows that they all belong.
Written with a sort of elegant simplicity that hits deeper than you realize ... The stories stick with you for a long time, so I’d advise readers to savor each one. Intentionally or not, Lahiri has left a lot of room for us to ruminate, reflect, pause, backtrack. The city of her mind is a very comfortable world to inhabit.
Artfully explore[s] themes of belonging, displacement, acceptance and intolerance ... This is a masterful collection in which Lahiri brilliantly delineates her characters' triumphs and trials.
