The Namesake is a book about a Bengali immigrant family, their problems with assimilation into the American culture and their growth as a family.

Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli come to America in the late 1960’s after an arranged marriage. The naming of their first child is one of many difficult attempts to bridge the new world and the life left behind. The couple chooses a pet name that they mean to replace, but never do. The child, named for a favorite Russian author, has difficulty with his odd name and his Indian heritage.

Jhumpa Lahiri presents the family’s struggle with insight and compassion. Readers watch the character of Gogol wrestle with his burdens and slowly come to define himself within his family context

Ms. Lahiri's first work, Interpreter of Maladies, won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.