Quote by Jhumpa Lahiri: “That's the thing about books: they let you travel without moving your feet.”

Reading is one of the most powerful forms of freedom available to anyone — it opens up other lives, other places, and other times without requiring money, mobility, or permission. For people who are displaced, trapped, or restricted, literature can be an entire world within reach.

Lahiri published The Namesake in 2003, a novel about a Bengali family navigating identity across generations in America. It appeared in the aftermath of 9/11, a moment when questions about belonging and cultural identity had become painfully urgent for immigrant communities across the United States.

American author of Bengali descent, born in London in 1967 and raised in Rhode Island. Her debut short story collection Interpreter of Maladies won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2000, and her work explores the immigrant experience, family bonds, and cultural dislocation with quiet precision.