Description

One of The Atlantic's Great American Novels

"Dazzling...An intimate, closely observed family portrait."--The New York Times

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States, HarperCollins is proud to present this library of American classics drawn from our storied catalog. The Namesake is a fine-tuned, deeply felt novel of identity from Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri that brilliantly illuminates the immigrant experience and the tangled ties between generations.

Meet the Ganguli family, new arrivals from Calcutta, trying their best to become Americans even as they pine for home. The name they bestow on their firstborn, Gogol, betrays all the conflicts of honoring tradition in a new world -- conflicts that will haunt Gogol on his own winding path through divided loyalties, comic detours, and wrenching love affairs.

With penetrating insight, Lahiri reveals not only the defining power of the names and expectations bestowed upon us by our parents, but also the means by which we slowly, sometimes painfully, come to define ourselves.