Whereabouts

Whereabouts is a book that lingers in your thoughts long after you've turned the final page. It's a contemplative and beautifully written work of literature. I totally get the hype about the author now. Her writing is so damn beautiful, it's easy to drown your sorrows and get lost in her narrations.

Haunting and stunning. And not to mention Lahiri's vivid writing.

 ''We stop in the middle and look at the wall that flanks the river, and the shadows of pedestrians cast on its surface. They look like skittish ghosts advancing in a row, obedient souls passing from one realm to another. The bridge is flat and yet it's as if the figures - vaporous shapes against the solid wall - are walking uphill, always climbing. They're like inmates who proceed, silently, toward a dreadful end.'‘

A nameless city in Italy. A nameless woman who wanders its streets, observing, remembering, waiting. Its citizens are shadows, their actions a constant disappointment. When companionship offers nothing but an acute feeling of loneliness, being ALONE is the appropriate choice.

One of the most enticing, poignant novels I've ever read.

''My sleep grows lighter and then it abandons me entirely. I wait until someone, anyone, drives by. The thoughts that come to roost in my head in those moments are always the gloomiest, also the most precise. That silence, combined with the black sky, takes hold over me until the first light returns and dispels those thoughts, until I hear the presence of lives passing by along the road below me.'‘ 

I'd describe this one as “quietly brimming with observations.” At times it felt like a book mourning what life could have been but ended with some openness.

Simple narrative - almost like reading diary entries of single middle-aged professor going about life on her own terms while battling the woes of loneliness that comes along with the same lifestyle

CW: animal death, cheating.

CW: animal death, cheating.

Did not finish. Sooooo boring.

Despite the fact I love her writing, these sounded too disconnected for me to engage as much as I usually do.

A horror novel disguised as literary fiction.

An unmarried, unnamed woman of a certain age is living her life alongside, but not necessarily with, friends and acquaintances in an unnamed, presumably Italian city. She seems to treasure her solitude and independence, but also long to be more closely entwined with people–she's lonely, but also reluctant to break out of her loneliness.

Not much happens in this quiet novel. There are some lovely scenes (the woman is alone in her compartment on a train when a group of joyful, demonstrative family members break into her solitude. They are eating and offer her food, which she refuses, but she admires them and enjoys their presence until they exit), and a very slow movement toward the ending, but it's far from action packed. Ultimately, it just didn't make a big impression on me.

A 3.5 star read. This wasn't what I was expecting but I found the vignette style and the characters reflections and musings very intriguing. This story follows a female unnamed protagonist living in Italy who is reflecting on her life and her experiences. This story is constructed in the form of memories provided by the protagonist in a detached format. She tells the reader snippets of information or a series of anecdotes that help us build up a wider picture of the characters life.

This is not a plot heavy book, it's more a character study. This is also more a novella length than a full novel. This was translated by the author from Italian. The author wrote this story in Italian originally a few years ago.

I think it's a crisp and vibrant story with a similar style to popular fiction like Convenience Store Woman. I throughly enjoyed reading this story and found it was easy to fly through the pages as it's super short.

Thanks to the author Jhumpa Lahiri, Bloomsbury and Netgalley for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.