Roman Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri translated into English by Jhumpa Lahiri and Todd Portnowitz

There are authors that emotionally connect me with my carefree times, when reading and discovering myself through various languages were taking the most of my intellectual concerns - I am still doing it glutonously, but while I am taking much more personal and professional responsibility in other fields. One of them is Jhumpa Lahiri whose works I was reading in the morning only to be ready to discuss with my intellectual friends in the evenings. 

Long after, I followed her testimonies about learning a new language of writing, Italian, that she is using since regularly for writing her new books. My latest read by her doesn´t have anything to do with language, at least not directly, but was written in Italian: Roman Stories, a collection of nine very different stories, that she translated into English, together with Todd Portnowitz. 

I am having my very intense Italian moment right now, but I couldn´t find the book in the Italian version, therefore, I delighted into the English version. Also, I haven´t read short stories in a while, therefore this collection suited my relatively short attention span those days.

Rome - this is where ´Roman´ in the title comes from - is the very discrete background the stories are taking place. Sometimes, we may assume but the specificities of the city are in most cases not relevant for the story - although some residential details, the elegance of women and the summer parties may be. Therefore, there is nothing aimed at increasing your interest towards Rome. Rather, its focus is on human emotions that connect us beyond languages, social status and city of residence. All those are accidental, but the empathy or lack of, are what really define us.

One of my favorite stories in the collection is The Steps where several life-stanzas of individuals living at the top of a densely staired street are brought together, and finely intertwined. The individual stories however aren´t connected. What connects them - nameless characters - is the deep human context and the beautifully chiselled prose.  

Some part of the stories are emotionally demanding, dealing with loss and grief, racism and loneliness, but those feelings are so seamlessly tied to the plot that there is nothing out of place or forcing you to believe.

Roman Stories was a very insightful encounter with a world that shaped and encouraged me to keep doing what I always love: read and connect to beautifully written stories.

Rating: 4.5