Roman Stories

For the uninitiated, Roman Stories is just the kind of short story collection you’d expect from Pulitzer Prize-winning multi-lingual author Jhumpa Lahiri.

Originally written in Italian and then translated into English, Roman Stories gives us a snippet of the lives of people living in modern-day Rome. While we never learn anyone’s name, each character is identified by their role in life or work: friend, mother, expat, wife, professor, screenwriter, and so on.

In some stories, we peer into the lives of people who were born and raised in Rome or broader Italy. Their intentions might initially be good as they do innocuous things like go on holidays or attend dinner parties, but there is often an act of transgression which pulls them (or the reader) out of their reverie.

Lahiri contrasts this with stories of migrants who deal with either overt or covert racism in their day-to-day lives. In one particularly touching story, a man finds a place of unexpected solace after he and his family are subjected to racial abuse in their neighbourhood.

In a way, the city of Rome is also a character itself, and while landmarks or street names aren’t explicitly stated, we might find ourselves thinking of similarities in our own hometowns.

While Lahiri loves to play witness (one of her characters discreetly watches a family holidaying next door), she often subverts our expectations of where lightness and darkness can be found.

Overall, this is a meditative read filled with Lahiri’s simple, clear language, poetic sensibility, and a gentle reminder to find peace and joy no matter who you are or where you come from.