Comments (38)

What did you think about this title?
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Feb 29, 2024Mouziey rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
the title is similar to an old title Death of salesman, where a life and all those attach begin here and disperse ; where do they finally end up...in the Lowlands; where they start to seeking ...what a revealing Asian Indian story...really…
Sep 10, 2023bon_9 rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
I think the title means The Past
Sep 11, 2022CMatisse rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Two brothers with two very different lives.
May 24, 2021liljables rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
I'd definitely call The Lowland a family saga - it spans many decades, it's told from the perspectives of almost every member of the Mitra family, and, while the narrative is anchored in real historical events that took place in India,…
Oct 25, 2020NANCY ELIZABETH WHITLATCH rated this title 1 out of 5 stars
I didn't care for this book by Jhumpa Lahiri. I admire her work as a writer, however, this one disappointed me. I didn't like any of the characters. None of them seemed to have much personality. So much of the book was long drawn out…
Apr 19, 2019sarpearl rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
I loved this book so much! It's a well-research tale of the consequences of grief. Every character is so well developed and portrayed. I also loved how, though the story is centered around Udayan's death, we as reader get to know him and…
Dec 12, 2016Harriet_the_Spy rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
As you read this masterful novel, you think you are learning how family secrets haunt the present. Yet at the end of the novel we discover we too have been lied to, and the weight of the past is political as much as familial. An amazing…
Jun 04, 2016TSCPL_ChrisB rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
The Lowland is a fabulous novel, and while there were characters, scenes, and moments that I thought could've been pared down some to allow the work to breathe, these were relatively minor. Overall, The Lowland is wonderfully paced and…
Apr 29, 2016tenj rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
This book is one of those books that I could get defensive about. It's underrated and taken too literally. Give it a chance, don't compare it to The Namesake (please don't do this!), and focus on the relationships over the events. It…
Mar 24, 2016
Book club, didn't care for it
Jan 26, 2016wyenotgo rated this title 2 out of 5 stars
I give this one two stars but only for the quality of the writing which is quiet, understated, eloquent. This is a book about loss. As a lonely foreign student, Subhash is abandoned by the older woman with whom he has established a…
Dec 01, 2015pokano rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
I would have given this beautifully written book 4.5 stars, feeling it was marred only by a somewhat weak ending. Subhash and Udayan are two brothers: Udayan is the revolutionary son, Subhash is the dutiful son. When Udayan dies an early…
Nov 23, 2015bluehydrangea rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
A slow read that crackles with tension, right to the end.
Sep 05, 2015WVMLlibrarianCathy rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
A beautiful book of a family torn apart and brought together again. Engaging characters and an unique story make this book a real page-turner.
May 26, 2015TheresaAJ rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
This novel follows the lives of two brothers, Subhash and Udayan, who follow very different political paths in post-colonial India. Born shortly after independence, they come of age during the turbulent 1960s. One brother joins a radical…
Feb 08, 2015rajdeepl rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
I am amazed by the style of the author. The way the story flows and keeps you connected as if you have witnessed this is beyond imagination. I could not stop reading the latter half uninterrupted as I was glued to my kindle for 4…
Dec 07, 2014Chapel_Hill_KenMc rated this title 2 out of 5 stars
Lahiri has demonstrated from past works that she is a capable writer, but she seems strangely detached from her characters in this novel. They never come to life, and this flaw leaves the entire story pervaded with apathy. We can only…
Nov 28, 2014uncommonreader rated this title 2 out of 5 stars
Although I enjoyed Lahiri's other books and although this novel was nominated for both the Man Booker and the Bailey's prizes, I found this family saga set from the 1960s to the present day disappointing. Characters seemed type-cast and…
Oct 19, 2014Vic4132 rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
Extraordinary writing. Pulitzer prize-winning talent. This could be real-life drama, carried out though in Bengali and America. Near enough to the quality and character depictions of John Steinbeck.
athompson10
Oct 10, 2014athompson10 rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Elegantly written. A complex story about love, loss and regret and what is left behind when one leaves the country and culture of one's birth.
Jun 17, 2014stewaroby rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
This is a wonderful book, although it's hard to put your finger on why it is so good. While reading it I felt I was fully inhabiting the world the characters were living in. It's the first book of Lahiri's that I have read and I wasn't…
May 28, 2014mcglass rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Jhumpa Lahiri's writing appears on each page with spacious ease and unusual candor. The story in The Lowland is spread out over several decades in the lives of the four main characters. The joy in reading this book can be felt threw…
Apr 23, 2014maipenrai rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
*** stars. Growing up in Calcutta, born just fifteen months apart, Subhash and Udayan Mitra are inseparable brothers, one often mistaken for the other. But they are also opposites, with gravely different futures ahead of them. It is the…
mnash01
Apr 12, 2014mnash01 rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
I absolutely loved it. I've read all of Lahiri's books and this may be my favorite. An extraordinary story detailed in her, as always, beautiful prose.
Apr 10, 2014writermala rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
grew up in Calcutta and lived the experiences Lahiri has described in her novel. She has been true to the events and her characters portray accurately the young men and women of the time. As is always the case with Lahiri this book too…