Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri was one of my favourite recent books that I've read. It's short, but it packs a punch. There was something beautifully lyrical in the way Lahiri writes, her descriptions are magical. I read this short book and immediately wanted more from her.

Lahari's third novel was originally written in Italian then translated into English and the novel features a nameless narrator in a nameless place who is lonely. There is little in the way of plot but the novel is still a compelling portrait of a mind in freefall.

A quiet novel made up of fragments of life.💫 'Solitude: it's become my trade. As it requires a certain discipline, it's a condition I try to perfect. And yet it plagues me, it weighs on me in spite of my knowing it so well' We follow a woman in het 40's mostly reflecting on the life she lives so fat. Told in an interesting was, every chapter in an other location 'On The Street', 'At The Pool', 'In The Shade' etc. and even though nothing life changing happens it was really interesting following this woman so intimately. Lahiri is capable of turning even the most mundane things into interesting snippets. The writing is beautiful, written in Italian and translated by the author herself. I understand this novel is not for everyone, it's not a happy story, loneliness and solitude are big themes and the main character is not always likeable. The story doesn't go anywhere, you get a little glimpse in the life of our main character and the people she meets. But I somehow really clicked with this story. The way the story is told and written was something new for me and I really enjoyed it. 💛 'I'm amazed at our impulse to express ourselves, explain ourselves, tell stories to one another

This was a gentle and fulfilling read about a year in the life of a middle aged woman somewhere in Italy. She is a restless spirit and each chapter is a vignette from her life and from different locations. I identified quite strongly with the narrator and very much enjoyed the narrative and the writing. Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

Thanks to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.

Jhumpa Lahiri is one of my absolute favourite authors EVER so I struggled to remain impartial reading this but I needn’t have worried because she has knocked it out of the park again.

This is the quiet, lonely tale of a middle-aged, unnamed woman who works as a university professor in an unnamed Italian town. It’s more of a novella than a full novel but that makes it easy to read again. We get glimpses into her life through short vignettes and observations of the day to day occurrences in her world. We never really get under the narrator’s skin, or any deep insight into her character, she stays very much an enigma throughout the entire (short) novel. The writing is minimalist and poetic and there is a real sense of melancholy throughout which wouldn’t appeal to all readers but I found it utterly compelling. I knew that the woman would remain unknowable but by golly, I wanted to try to know and understand her.

What struck me about this book is how Italian it feels. Anyone who reads a lot of Italian fiction knows that it has a unique feel to it and it made me want to read it in the original Italian to compare the overall sense of it. I don’t know if it’s because I come from an Italian family background but it really resonated with me. What is particularly impressive is the fact it was written in Italian initially by a non-native Italian speaker and then translated back into English – without losing the vital feel of the novel. This has left me even more excited for the author’s upcoming translation of Ovid’s Metamorphosis (which I am already chomping at the bit for).

This is a journal of a year in the life of a woman, in her late forties, who feels she doesn't belong and yet seems desperate to. The sense of isolation seems to stem from her childhood.

We have a series of short vignettes of her life - at work, on the train, in her apartment, at a business conference, at a dinner party, visiting her mother, thinking about moving on. She seems insecure and afraid, as though she will get burned if she ventures too close.

The language Jhumpa Lahiri uses draws us into this woman's fragile, uncertain world, with its daily routine and set parameters. She is reluctant to try new things, to taste new experiences, preferring the mundane to the different. I sense we are being challenged to look at our own existence and whether we, like the woman, are afraid to reach out to new experiences and people.

At the end of the novel, the woman is moving and yet remains within her cocoon of imposed self-isolation. How much will really change for her as she moves her contained life to another place?

The location is never overtly mentioned but is Italian, a city landscape - possibly Rome. I always imagine Italian women as being gregarious, open, and emotional, so it is unusual to find a woman who is none of these things. Yet, through the course of the various diary entries, we draw close to the woman and sense something of her solitude and why she has chosen it.

I enjoyed reading this book and will seek out more by Jhumpa Lahiri.

I was sent an advance review copy of this book by Bloomsbury Publishing, in return for an honest appraisal.

Elegant and spare, 'Whereabouts' is a series of connected vignettes based around the mundane life of an unnamed woman in an unnamed city. While seemingly little happens, Lahiris's considered, poetic prose is highly focussed on the internal musings of the narrator, and the complex interplay of the narrator's desire for solitude and the unwanted spectre of her loneliness.

A beautiful, touching novella I enjoyed reading. Usual prose of Lahiri that is amazing to read.
Thanks a lot to NT and the publisher for this copy.

Evocative and poetically written, this novella is simply crafted through a series of vignettes which builds up brushstroke by brushstroke a picture of a woman at a turning point in her life. A masterclass in writing.

This was a beautiful read. I really loved it. We see a nameless woman, one who chooses to live alone but wants to part of society, and reflects upon those choices. Jhumpra Lahiri wrote this book in Italian, and then she herself translated it into English, an amazing feat for the language is amazing, beautiful, truly impressive!! I really enjoyed it and while it was incredibly short and I read it terribly quickly, I savoured every word.

a gentle, contemplative book, where not much happens, but then alot happens. It floats along nicely and is meditative in itself when immersed in the words. What a fantastic writer, almost poetic. A short book in length, but vast in itself. I will definitely re read this book - just magical

'I hear the babble of people as they chatter, on and on. I'm amazed at our impulse to express ourselves, explain ourselves, tell stories to one another.'

Originally written in Italian and now translated by the author herself, 'Whereabouts' reads as a diary, a series of entries over the course of a year as a woman lives her life in an Italian city. From going to a restaurant, the doctor's clinic, a stationery store, these small vignettes of a life are in themselves unremarkable, but are so perfectly described in sparse yet lyrical prose that the whole effect becomes mesmerising. We observe a life in action, where the small moments of interaction with friends and colleagues, the slightest gesture of a stranger opening a napkin, a visit to the swimming pool, all offer glimpses into her life. And as the narrator gradually reveals more of her past life, we learn to understand her position as a bystander, an observer.

If you like your books with action, pace and adventure, please move on. This is a book to savour, where every word matters and what is left unsaid is often more important than what is said, A quiet, reflective book that shows Lahiri as an extraordinary writer, this gets a very big 5 stars from me.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

Just loved this brilliant compelling novel. The author gives us snippets of the life of an unnamed narrator in an unnamed location (although we can assume it is a place in Italy). Gradually we begin to learn about our narrator, she is a female university teacher in her mid 40’s. Each chapter gives us a brief evocative account of an episode in the narrators life. She is a lonely person whose life is punctuated with friendships but she seems destined for a life of solitude.
A beautifully written novel that I found fascinating and compelling even though there is little in the way of plot.

Whereabouts is honest, profound , thought-provoking and an absolute joy to read, One that you will become so engrossed with, you will read it one or two sittings.

I was going to call this a novel, but really it's a series of vignettes as we ride along in the inner monologue of a 40-something woman whilst she walks through her city, and her life. The city is unnamed, but something (maybe a description, maybe a feeling) made me assume it is Rome. Lahiri wrote this in Italian, and has translated it into English herself. I was so happy at that, as although I love translated works, I'm always unsure of how true to the author's original intentions the translated words are.

The consistent theme in this book is that of solitude vs loneliness. Our narrator lives alone, has been single since a bad breakup many years before, has no children or siblings, her father has passed away and her mother lives some distance from her. She has friends, and a career, but her life is mainly lived solo. At times this makes her feel free, but more often there is melancholy in her mood and thoughts. She ruminates about her childhood, her place in the world, and what others who are married seem to have that she doesn't. She is complex, and incredibly interesting, though at times I didn't always like her. But granted with Lahiri's prose as her way of seeing the world, she is someone I could have spent even more time with, as the writing in this book is so rich and insightful.

This is my third Lahiri book, and whilst I don't think it reaches the perfection of Interpreter of Maladies, I did enjoy it slightly more than The Namesake. It's hard to compare the three, as they are all so very different, so that's just a gut reaction. But I felt like this book drew me in, held my attention and really captured a mood.

A collection of fond observations describing the author's thoughts on her home town, love, life, family the street life she sees every day. A gentle walk through her personal memories. Simply told, simply written "Whereabouts" makes for a relaxing read.

I am a huge fan of Jhumpha Lahiri’s novels. She is an exceptional writer for her penetrating observation and the beauty of her stories. Whereabouts was something very different to her usual novels. This is the story of a woman - do we ever know her name? - living alone in a city. The novel comprises a series of vignettes set at various points of the city. As always, Lahiri’s observation and writing is extraordinary. Her sentences are taut with meaning, pictorial almost photographic. This is a story of a life, day by day, the minutia, the breath and flow of each day. Interactions and connections with other people. This is a slim book but it is dense in a story which is only partly told, loaded with stories that we must unfold ourselves. I think that this is book to read again and again. This novel is not for those who want action or drama, it is one for those who want to see the colour, smell the rain, and step into another’s shoes and see through their eyes how life is lived, how it is felt. With thanks to Netgalley and Bloomsbury for a digital copy of this book.

Whereabouts is a charming collection of short stories following the life of an unnamed woman as she goes about a life of relative solitariness in a small Italian town. Despite her 'aloneness' the narrator's life is rife with tender observations and lyrical musings on her existence. Lahiri's focus is on the everyday events that any reader can relate to; a train journey to visit old friends, a christening party, trips to the shops.; but they are delivered with such richness that just a snippet is sufficient to keep the reader hooked.
Perfect escapism.

Jhumpa Lahiri is one of my favorite authors and I jumped up and down when I got an opportunity to review her new book.
As it was translated from Italian to English (by herself) this was somewhat different. A novella length book consisting of vignettes of everyday moments of a woman in her 40s, living in an Italian city.
Overall it had quite a melancholic tone, which was extremely well done., but still moments of pure joy come through as well. I would have loved the book to go just a bit deeper in each of the vignettes.
Lahiri can really show how everyday moments and places can be special - and that is what is especially prevalent during this pandemic - you start noticing and enjoying the little things. If you didn't before, you will after reading this book.
4.5/5

Whereabouts is Jhumpa Lahiri's own translation of her Italian language novel Dove Mi Trovo. It is a slim volume that reads almost like a diary. Written as a series of vignettes with titles like In the Supermarket, At The Swimming Pool., it follows a single woman in her forties as she lives her day to day life in Italy , and is a meditation on isolation, loneliness and growing older, which makes it sound dull and depressing, but in actual fact it is neither. The writing is gorgeous, incredibly evocative and showing the beauty in the everyday , from descriptions of fruits and vegetables in the marketplace to her observations of the people around her, locals and tourists alike. I loved that the book ended on a hopeful note, with the promise of more for our unnamed narrator.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.