Writing in The New York Times, Liesl Schillinger says, "Reading her stories is like watching time-lapse nature videos of different plants, each with its own inherent growth cycle, breaking through the soil, spreading into bloom or collapsing back to earth."[4] Hirsh Sawhney, writing for The Guardian, believes that Lahiri "is at core an old-guard New England writer. Her new book begins with a quote from Hawthorne, and this stirringly existential anthology recalls the New Englander JD Salinger's pessimistic vision of human relationships."[5]
It made number one on the New York Times Book Review list of "10 Best Books of 2008" as chosen by the paper's editors.[6] It also won the 2008 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award; there was no shortlist as the judges believe "no other title was a serious contender."[7] [8]
