Jhumpa Lahiri, a Pulitzer-prize winning American author, decided as an adult to become fluent in Italian and change career directions by translating Italian and beginning to write in Italian herself. “Roman Stories” is a collection of short stories (pub date 10 Oct 2023) which she originally wrote in Italian and then translated into English (along with some help by Todd Portnowitz). The common theme running through them is the plight of the immigrant in Italy, the otherness they feel, and daily aggressions they face.

Perhaps if I had read all the stories in one sitting I would have been able to see more connections: I was expecting that something big would be revealed, showing how they all were connected, but I didn’t find this. Maybe it was there and I missed it, or maybe I shouldn’t have had such expectations. Maybe my lack of knowledge of Italian literature hampered me from enjoying this as much as I otherwise would. Some of the stories ended with a gut-punch, and were so moving and actually shocking. Others just seemed to be about random people living or visiting a city and I had difficulty connecting to them, since they were nameless and could easily have been interchanged from one story to the next. I did not feel that Rome was really a character in most of the stories; at times it could almost have been any large city anywhere.

Despite these criticisms, I do recommend this collection, because the majority of the stories are compelling and thought-provoking. I also live in a large city with many immigrants and I appreciate being transported by literature into their world, so that my heart and eyes will be opened to their reality.
Thank you NetGalley and Knopf.