The Namesake

Immigrant family saga; Indian American literature; Contemporary realistic fiction

Paperback

1st

1st

Third Person

Fiction

291

12

2018-06-26 17:25:07

The Namesake follows the Ganguli family from their traditional life in Calcutta to their resettlement in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and later the Boston suburbs. Shortly after their arranged marriage, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli emigrate to the United States so that Ashoke can complete his engineering studies at MIT, while Ashima struggles with isolation, homesickness, and the disorientation of a foreign culture. When their first child is born, they intend to follow Bengali custom by giving him two names: a formal, public name chosen by his great-grandmother in India, and a private pet name used only within the family. But when the long‑awaited letter with his formal name fails to arrive before the hospital paperwork is due, Ashoke hastily chooses the pet name ”Gogol,” in honor of the Russian writer Nikolai Gogol whose stories once, in a train accident in India, quite literally saved his life. Growing up in suburban America, Gogol Ganguli comes to resent his unusual name and the complicated history and expectations that accompany it. As he moves through school, college, love affairs, career decisions, and the pull between coasts and continents, Gogol struggles to reconcile his Bengali heritage with his American upbringing, and to understand his parents’ sacrifices and silences. Spanning roughly three decades, the novel explores themes of immigration, identity, generational conflict, and the subtle but powerful ways names, memories, and family histories shape who we become.

First Mariner Books

9780618485222

United States

2003-09-01

2003

2003

51728729

1

English

Boston

~$8.99

2026-04-05

2018-06-26 17:25:07