Lahiri was born in London in 1967. Her parents immigrated from India to London before she was born. At age three, Lahiri moved to the United States. While Lahiri has said that she considers herself American, she is a child of immigrants and therefore associated with both American and Indian cultures.

In an interview with the New York Times, Lahiri said: “I don’t know what to make of the term ‘immigrant fiction.’ Writers have always tended to write about the worlds they come from […] many writers originate from different parts of the world than the ones they end up living in” (Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interview. “Jhumpa Lahiri: By the Book.” New York Times, 5 Sept. 2013). In her novels and short stories, Lahiri explores the inner life of characters who deal with issues of identity, family responsibility, pressures to assimilate, differing customs, and fitting in. Lahiri’s 2003 novel The Namesake follows a man who feels pressure from his family to follow Indian traditions and from American society to assimilate. He wishes to change his given name “Gogol” to the more American “Nick.”

Interpreter of Maladies was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2000, the PEN/Hemingway Award in 1999, and the New Yorker’s Best Debut of the Year 2000.