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The Boundary
Every Saturday, a new family comes to stay. Some arrive early in the morning, from afar, ready to begin their vacation. Others don’t turn up until sunset, in bad moods, maybe having lost their way. It’s easy to get lost in these hills; the roads are poorly signposted.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
Unknown Binding
Published January 29, 2018
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292 people want to read
About the author
Jhumpa Lahiri
108 books14.7k followersNilanjana Sudeshna "Jhumpa" Lahiri is a British-American author known for her short stories, novels, and essays in English and, more recently, in Italian.
Her debut collection of short-stories, Interpreter of Maladies (1999), won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Hemingway Award, and her first novel, The Namesake (2003), was adapted into the popular film of the same name. The Namesake was a New York Times Notable Book, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist and was made into a major motion picture.
Unaccustomed Earth (2008) won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, while her second novel, The Lowland (2013) was a finalist for both the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award for Fiction.
On January 22, 2015, Lahiri won the US$50,000 DSC Prize for Literature for The Lowland. In these works, Lahiri explored the Indian-immigrant experience in America.
In 2012, Lahiri moved to Rome, Italy and has since then published two books of essays, and began writing in Italian, first with the 2018 novel Dove mi trovo, then with her 2023 collection Roman Stories. She also compiled, edited, and translated the Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories which consists of 40 Italian short stories written by 40 different Italian writers. She has also translated some of her own writings and those of other authors from Italian into English.
In 2014, Lahiri was awarded the National Humanities Medal. She was a professor of creative writing at Princeton University from 2015 to 2022. In 2022, she became the Millicent C. McIntosh Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at her alma mater, Barnard College of Columbia University.
Her debut collection of short-stories, Interpreter of Maladies (1999), won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Hemingway Award, and her first novel, The Namesake (2003), was adapted into the popular film of the same name. The Namesake was a New York Times Notable Book, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist and was made into a major motion picture.
Unaccustomed Earth (2008) won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, while her second novel, The Lowland (2013) was a finalist for both the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award for Fiction.
On January 22, 2015, Lahiri won the US$50,000 DSC Prize for Literature for The Lowland. In these works, Lahiri explored the Indian-immigrant experience in America.
In 2012, Lahiri moved to Rome, Italy and has since then published two books of essays, and began writing in Italian, first with the 2018 novel Dove mi trovo, then with her 2023 collection Roman Stories. She also compiled, edited, and translated the Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories which consists of 40 Italian short stories written by 40 different Italian writers. She has also translated some of her own writings and those of other authors from Italian into English.
In 2014, Lahiri was awarded the National Humanities Medal. She was a professor of creative writing at Princeton University from 2015 to 2022. In 2022, she became the Millicent C. McIntosh Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at her alma mater, Barnard College of Columbia University.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 22, 2024
A short story from the Pulitzer Prize Winner for fiction in 2000, from her new collection called Roman Stories. Slow-paced and leisurely - set within a restful and bucolic ambience - it steals up upon your somnolence and KO’s you at the end with a bang, not a whimper.
The victims DARE not whimper.
The victims are a family of landlord/ caretakers in a country location. Folks pay to get rest from city life at their cottage, and this family of victims are paid for their silence. For the victims discomfort reigns, while for the visitors freedom is bliss.
Now, racism and prejudice are facts.
They make their victims Invisible for society's comfort. A country's freedom is founded on difference, yet vilely suppresses it. So it is with the narrator, and her parents. They know they must hide their pain because they are different. And prejudice is racism's comfortable grandfather.
Prejudice is, unfortunately, part and parcel of the world. We are imperfect and so are our attitudes. We are constantly driven to seek the New on the shelves and disregard the rot in our foundation, which was laid with our old-home-town complacency.
Human beings, though, don't come in new and improved variants. We are the children of our old-fashioned upbringing, with all its flaws. And all parents have prejudices.
Our world is no longer harmonious. We're no longer playing from the same sheet of music. We may find harmony with who we are - our flawed prejudices - but we'll be out of harmony with the world, like one recent political leader.
We must act in harmony with the world!
If that means we shoulder some of our victim's pain so be it.
The world is our Substance, Spinoza would say. We individuals are Accidental parts of that world.
The past century was full of growing pains as, technologically, the world shrank.
It was the beginning of the present widespread hatred of our neighbour's close proximity.
We now have no choice but to love him -
If we want to survive.
The victims DARE not whimper.
The victims are a family of landlord/ caretakers in a country location. Folks pay to get rest from city life at their cottage, and this family of victims are paid for their silence. For the victims discomfort reigns, while for the visitors freedom is bliss.
Now, racism and prejudice are facts.
They make their victims Invisible for society's comfort. A country's freedom is founded on difference, yet vilely suppresses it. So it is with the narrator, and her parents. They know they must hide their pain because they are different. And prejudice is racism's comfortable grandfather.
Prejudice is, unfortunately, part and parcel of the world. We are imperfect and so are our attitudes. We are constantly driven to seek the New on the shelves and disregard the rot in our foundation, which was laid with our old-home-town complacency.
Human beings, though, don't come in new and improved variants. We are the children of our old-fashioned upbringing, with all its flaws. And all parents have prejudices.
Our world is no longer harmonious. We're no longer playing from the same sheet of music. We may find harmony with who we are - our flawed prejudices - but we'll be out of harmony with the world, like one recent political leader.
We must act in harmony with the world!
If that means we shoulder some of our victim's pain so be it.
The world is our Substance, Spinoza would say. We individuals are Accidental parts of that world.
The past century was full of growing pains as, technologically, the world shrank.
It was the beginning of the present widespread hatred of our neighbour's close proximity.
We now have no choice but to love him -
If we want to survive.
February 9, 2022
A beautifully written short-story, set in the countryside of Italy, about class and gratitude, about the home of one person being the escape of another.
April 7, 2022
❝They say that being here is all they need, that even the air is different, that it cleanses. How lovely, they say, being together like this, away from everyone.❞
May 19, 2022
Read for my Literary Studies admission. I wasn’t expecting much due to the amount of pages. How Lahiri has made a very atmospheric story within eight pages - which you immediately are drawn into - remains a question to me. But I certainly enjoyed and I would love to read the Italian version someday (if my Italian improves).
October 9, 2024
amazing short story. was able to read this for an event at school featuring lahiri herself!!
February 4, 2020
It is a simple story that illustrates the immense differences between national, presumably rich people and, I guess, trans-nationals/immigrants, as the narrator observes how the visitors live while they are staying in the guest house, and compares it to his/her own living situation with his/her family.
But maybe it is just a story about two families who are too preoccupied envying the other for what they have that they don't, rather than appreciating what they do have.
But maybe it is just a story about two families who are too preoccupied envying the other for what they have that they don't, rather than appreciating what they do have.
May 31, 2022
Lahiri’s short story is one that explores the obliviousness one has towards the beauty of one’s own life- what’s experienced as a curse by one, might be seen as a blessing by another.
January 7, 2023
A perfectly-formed portrait of different kinds of cruelty and appropriation.
May 6, 2024
not me trying not to cry in the library
December 26, 2023
"She stares at the various greens of the lawn, the hills, the woods in the distance. The glaring blue of the sky, the yellow hay. The bleached fence and the low stone wall that marks the property line. She studies everything I look at every day. But I wonder what else she sees in it."
June 15, 2021
This was well written and easy to read. It touches on the contrasting lives of two families and the message I took from it is to be grateful for life, wherever you are.
April 5, 2022
You can read this short story yourself here> https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
June 3, 2024
will have to spend a bit more time reflecting on the meaning of this 8-page story.
January 15, 2025
Elegantly crafted yet lacks a lasting impact.
August 27, 2025
the dichotomy of it all, probably.
liked how this was written, but honestly left no impact for me.
liked how this was written, but honestly left no impact for me.
March 17, 2024
Lahiri's prose is elegant and precise, capturing the nuances of human emotion and experience with sensitivity and depth. The story is told with a gentle touch, allowing the complexities of the characters' lives and relationships to unfold naturally and without judgment.
While the story may be slow-paced for some readers, the careful attention to detail and the richness of the characterizations make it a rewarding and deeply satisfying read. The themes of cultural identity and belonging are particularly resonant in today's world, and Lahiri's treatment of them is both insightful and poignant.
While the story may be slow-paced for some readers, the careful attention to detail and the richness of the characterizations make it a rewarding and deeply satisfying read. The themes of cultural identity and belonging are particularly resonant in today's world, and Lahiri's treatment of them is both insightful and poignant.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews