PLOT: 3.5/5
WRITING: 4.5/5
OVERALL: 4/5
GENRE & THEMES: Literary Fiction, Loneliness, Belonging
“Solitude: it’s become my trade. As it requires a certain discipline, it’s a condition I try to perfect. And yet it plagues me, it weighs on me in spite of my knowing it so well.”
– Jhumpa Lahiri, Whereabouts
I don’t remember exactly when I purchased Whereabouts. Maybe it was in 2023 or perhaps 2021, but I do know that it has been sitting quietly on my shelf for a couple of years, waiting for that precise moment when it would finally catch my eye. That moment arrived last month, when I eventually picked it up.
I haven’t read much of Jhumpa Lahiri’s work so far, with Unaccustomed Earth being the only book I have finished until now. Whereabouts is thus only my second book by the author, and I have a lot to say about it.
For the uninitiated, this book was originally written in Italian and later translated into English by Lahiri herself. It also marks her first novel to be written in Italian.
Not her conventional writing
If you are picking up this book expecting a familiar taste of Jhumpa Lahiri’s usual writing, this may come as a surprise. This is not her conventional style at all. Instead, it feels distinctly different from her earlier works, far more subtle, introspective, and nuanced in its approach.
Here, the emphasis rests less on a clearly defined, plot-driven structure and more on emotions, silences, and fleeting expressions. The narrative unfolds gently, allowing inner thoughts and quiet moments to take center stage, making the reading experience contemplative rather than dramatic.
What is the book all about?
Whereabouts revolves around its main character, an unnamed, middle-aged woman living in an unnamed Italian city. She is a professor and has no one she can truly call her own, apart from a mother who appears intermittently in the narrative.
She leads a lonely yet deeply observant life, moving through both the chaos and the calm that surround her, constantly pondering her existence and reflecting on the places and people around her. The book traces a year of her life, the people and spaces that linger with her, and the pangs of isolation that often speak louder than she does.
She frequently questions her place in the world, caught in a constant shuffle between stasis and movement, between the desire to belong and the equally strong need to remain unbound. In her solitary journey, the city, with its myriad avenues, emerges as a character in itself.
And then, at the end of that year, comes a transformation. A subtle shift in perspective and approach that quietly leads her toward a changed life.
My review
Whereabouts is quite a different read. There is no firm attachment to a particular plot or conventional flow. The words, much like the main character herself, seem to drift from one thought to another. And yet, the reader remains grounded in the places she describes and in the people she reflects upon.
Her musings, which are essentially what fill the odd forty-plus chapters, gradually and almost imperceptibly bind the reader to her. At once, we do not fully know her, and yet we come to know her in ways that feel deeply personal.
It is as though an intimate, unspoken conversation unfolds between the reader and the narrator, quietly strengthening the bond between them and drawing us further into her inner world.
The writing style is strikingly different and unconventional, and yet immensely potent. What the book may lack on the plot and character front is more than compensated for by the spaces that surround her and that she continually reflects upon.
The city becomes her anchor, and its many locations—the sidewalk, the street, the office, the piazza, the museum, the balcony, the pool, the hotel, the coffee bar, the house, the cash register, the bookstore, the waiting room, and more—emerge as characters in their own right.
There are a few characters too, though they are not used overwhelmingly, appearing as sparingly and deliberately as the prose itself. The mother, the colleagues, the ex-lover—all of them reveal more about the unnamed professor than about themselves.
The title, too, feels perfectly apt. Whereabouts fits seamlessly with the essence of the book.
It celebrates the mundane, the unglamorous, and the seemingly unimportant parts of ourselves that we so often overlook, yet which quietly shape who we are.
It dwells in the in-between spaces of time, those stretches where nothing much seems to happen, and yet something does, as we unconsciously prepare ourselves for life’s next turning point.
Read it if you are a fan of literary fiction, unnamed characters, and slow, elegant, reflective, and expressive writing—works that weave in musings, the mundane, and an exploration of the human mind. You will also enjoy it if books that explore loneliness, belonging, and the search for one’s place in the world appeal to you.
Can’t wait to read it? Buy your copy of Whereabouts right away!
