Synopsis Hailed as a 'writer of uncommon elegance and poise', Jyumpa Lahiri blazed a trail of fame with the publication of Interpreter of Maladies-a collection f short stories of Bengal, Boston and Beyond, this collection clearly reveals the 'liminal state' in which expatriate writers and hence most of their characters live. The search for an identity is the 'leitmotif' of this collection. The success of her first book was soon replicated with her first novel The Namesake, which once again deals with the theme of diaspora-the conflict between two identities: the search for a home for the first generation and the need to belong for the second generation expatriate. Nourished and oppressed by two cultures, the expatriate seems to be forever in a state of flux-belonging and not-belonging, the insider and yet the outsider.