Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Interpreter of Maladies

  • By: Jhumpa Lahiri
  • Narrated by: Matilda Novak
  • Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (61 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Interpreter of Maladies cover art

Interpreter of Maladies

By: Jhumpa Lahiri
Narrated by: Matilda Novak
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £13.99

Buy Now for £13.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Bell Jar cover art
Never Let Me Go cover art
Mrs. Kimble cover art
Cairo in White cover art
Everything That Rises Must Converge cover art
The Fragments cover art
Flush cover art
Anna Karenina cover art
Edgar Allan Poe - The Complete Short Stories cover art
Invisible Man cover art
The Common Reader Volume 1 cover art

Summary

Pulitzer Prize, Fiction, 2000

With accomplished precision and gentle eloquence, Jhumpa Lahiri traces the crosscurrents set in motion when immigrants, expatriates, and their children arrive, quite literally, at a cultural divide. The nine stories in this stunning debut collection unerringly chart the emotional journeys of characters seeking love beyond the barriers of nations and generations.

A blackout forces a young Indian American couple to make confessions that unravel their tattered domestic peace. An Indian-American girl recognizes her cultural identity during a Halloween celebration while the Pakastani civil war rages on television in the background. A latchkey kid with a single working mother finds affinity with a woman from Calcutta. In the title story, an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors and hears an astonishing confession.

Imbued with the sensual details of Indian culture, these stories speak with passion and wisdom to everyone who has ever felt like a foreigner. Like the interpreter of the title story, Lahiri translates between the strict traditions of her ancestors and a baffling new world.

©2000 Jhumpa Lahiri (P)2000 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

"Moving and authoritative pictures of culture shock and displaced identity." (Kirkus Reviews)
"The crystalline writing in the nine stories of this Pulitzer Prize-winning debut collection dazzles. These sensitive explorations of the lives of Indian immigrants and expatriates touch on universal themes, making them at once specific and broad in their appeal. Narrator Matilda Novak's light voice is fine for stories written by a young woman, and the hint of melody in her reading is typical of Indian voices." (AudioFile)

What listeners say about Interpreter of Maladies

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    26
  • 4 Stars
    16
  • 3 Stars
    12
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    4
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    23
  • 4 Stars
    11
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    6
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    21
  • 4 Stars
    16
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A pleasant read

A vivid book from a talented author. I bought this in error while searching for another book of hers. I was caught out just as I was when I read it years ago, it's short stories!

It would be helpful if the stories were clearly delineated in this audio book as the transitions weren't always clear.

The performance was clear and I wouldn't mind hearing this reading in some other books if appropriate. However I found her American accent very distracting and somewhat annoying especially when reading stories set in India. I have never heard an American story in an Indian accent so I found this equally as ridiculous. Without being stereotypical I feel a better selection should have been made.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Short stories

I am not sure what I was expecting but this was a compendium of really quirky but interesting short stories all with a Bengali background. I really enjoyed them.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

dull

seems inconsequential. none of the characters interested me despite the attraction they were Bangladeshi. dreary

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Delightfully written and sensitively read

Such exquisite insight into the human condition.

Diverse stories written so well

Having spent time in India …. And knowing the culture a little probably added to my enjoyment.


Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Weird guitar music in between

Only really liked the first story. Guitar music at random, was distracting from the stories.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Interpreter of Maladies

As expected I enjoyed reading most of the books Jhumpa lahiri s books are very interesting and am waiting for her next book 👍🏾

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I can't stand the reader

The book and stories are amazing. But the performance is terrible.
At times she's reading fast
then she sounds robotic
then she pauses in odd places
she uses emotive tones in the wrong places.

I love the stories and the book, but the performance was the worst.

also when she tries to pronounce names and indian words, it's even worse

oh gosh and when she tries to do an Indian accent, it's a joke. Just don't do it. it's offensive!

And there's random guitar music for so e reason. quite annoying and distracting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great work let down by the performance

Great stories by the author but the narrator here is not suited for this work. I’m sure her other work is great, but here not so much.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Gorgeous and insightful

Beautiful stories that make you cry and smile and generally discuss the different relationships between people and a country they move to.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
  • CK
  • 28-03-21

Delightful vinaigrettes

Agree that the narrator's voice didn't match the cultures, but reading the author's varied background perhaps it was fitting. Beautifully visual writing with stories that make you ponder, smile, feel slightly depressed, raise an eyebrow, and yet relate to along with it. Full stars.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!