What an enjoyable collection of stories! Albeit one that makes me hungry... food is a constant background presence here, and everything is described so beautifully. The prose is, I think, my favourite part - it's so gentle and lyrical and lovely. This is the first time I've read Lahiri, and I want to go and find more from her now, simply to luxuriate in the way that she uses words. It's very, very appealing.

The stories themselves are quiet little snapshots of learning to live with absence - either of family or culture. I think "Mrs. Sen's" (which is one of the two I like best) is probably the best example of this. It's absolutely steeped with homesickness, and with the callouses that build up when you don't really have one. The first story in the collection, "A Temporary Matter," about the gradual dissolution of a marriage after the death of a child, also works heavily towards those themes of isolation and loss. In general, then, the book has a strong sense of sadness about it. Though I have to say, the best story here in my opinion, the one I would come back to again and again, is darkly funny, with what is arguably a happy ending - "The Treatment of Bibi Haldar". That one I loved.