Book Rating (82)
Narrator Rating (18)

The Namesake

Unabridged Audio Book

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Sarita Choudhury

10 Hours 10 Minutes

Random House (Audio)

September 2003

Audio Book Summary

The Namesake follows the Ganguli family through its journey from Calcutta to Cambridge to the Boston suburbs. Ashima and Ashoke Ganguli arrive in America at the end of the 1960s, shortly after their arranged marriage in Calcutta, in order for Ashoke to finish his engineering degree at MIT. Ashoke is forward-thinking, ready to enter into American culture if not fully at least with an open mind. His young bride is far less malleable. Isolated, desperately missing her large family back in India, she will never be at peace with this new world.

Soon after they arrive in Cambridge, their first child is born, a boy. According to Indian custom, the child will be given two names: an official name, to be bestowed by the great-grandmother, and a pet name to be used only by family. But the letter from India with the child's official name never arrives, and so the baby's parents decide on a pet name to use for the time being. Ashoke chooses a name that has particular significance for him: on a train trip back in India several years earlier, he had been reading a short story collection by one of his most beloved Russian writers, Nikolai Gogol, when the train derailed in the middle of the night, killing almost all the sleeping passengers onboard. Ashoke had stayed awake to read his Gogol, and he believes the book saved his life. His child will be known, then, as Gogol.

Lahiri brings her enormous powers of description to her first novel, infusing scene after scene with profound emotional depth. Condensed and controlled, The Namesake covers three decades and crosses continents, all the while zooming in at very precise moments on telling detail, sensory richness, and fine nuances of character.

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Reviews

  • Andrea O.

    Lovely story. This is a contemplative piece and one of the things that mesmerized me was the way in which it was written. If you enjoy reading something that is slow paced and self contained, this is the book for you. Also, the narrator was wonderful.

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  • Christine S.

    I have tears in my eyes as I have just finished listening this incredibly beautiful book. Names are powerful - and this book captures the power that comes with your name. What a terrific story - so many depths to this story and very well executed. Very touching writing, I cried a few times during this book - I will miss spending time with the Ganguli family. Jhumpa Lahrai wrote such wonderful characters in Ashima and Ashoke Ganguli, telling their story as much as the story of Gogol their son. The reader is transported from Calcutta, India to Cambridge, MA and back again. I enjoyed, as I said earlier spending time with Ganguli family - Lahiri's descriptions of their family life painted such a vivid picture that I felt like I was one of their guests at times. You could just smell Ashram's cooking! The narrator, Sarita Choudhury, has a beautiful voice - I would listen to her read a grocery list and it be soothing! I absolutely loved this book and am very sad that it over.

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  • Amandeep G.

    I cried ...No words can describe ... Truely a masterpiece narrated superbly

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  • Anonymous

    Read and seen the movie earlier, this time listening to it made it come more live.

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