Bala, Suman, Jhumpa Lahiri, the Master Storyteller: A Critical Response to "Interpreter of Maladies," Khosla Publishing House, 2002.

Indian literary scholar Suman Bala has collected thirty essays by Indian critics and scholars discussing Lahiri's story collection. The volume is valuable in providing Western readers with Indian perspectives on Lahiri's work.

Jayapal, Pramila, Pilgrimage: One Woman's Return to a ChangingIndia, Seal Press, 2000.

Jayapal was born in Madras in southern India, grew up in Indonesia and Singapore, and came to theUnited States as a teenager to complete her education. At the age of thirty, Jayapal returned toIndia for two years with a fellowship that allowed her to travel throughout the country and write about her experiences and observations. Jayapal is an international development specialist, and her narrative is a mixture of scholarly observation and personal narrative—the latter including the hair-raising tale of her son's birth. The book is...