It is often said that a writer writes about what they know. This saying is especially true in the collection of short stories Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri. Almost all of the stories in the book reflect her life in one way or another, be it a character in the story, the general plot, or the setting. Whether it is a student London, a teacher in New England or a tourist in India the stories in her book were was ripped from the pages of Lahiri's life. If a writer writes about what they know a good writer like Lahiri writes about what she lived. .
Jhumpa Lahiri was born in 1967 in London, and grew up in Rhode Island. She has traveled several times to India, where both her parents were born and raised. She is a graduate of Barnard College where she received a Bachelor's Degree in English literature. She applied to various graduate English programs but was rejected from all of them. While waiting to apply again, she took a job as a research assistant at a non-profit institution in Cambridge. She also attended Boston University, where she received a Master's Degree in English, Creative Writing and Comparative Studies in Literature and the Arts. She also received a Ph.D. in Renaissance Studies from Boston University. Lahiri has also been a teacher of creative writing at Boston University and the Rhode Island School of Design. She currently lives in New York City where she continues to write. Jhumpa Lahiri has travel or lived in the place in which her stories take place and has very person familiarities with the event and conflicts depicted in her stories. .
In almost off of the stories in the book, as you read them you can imagine that they have an almost biographical sense to them. With comprehensive details about the appearance of the characters, the mental and emotional state of the characters which gives up incite into the minds, hearts, and souls of the characters which play vital roles in the story.