"In Lahiri's sympathetic tales, the pang of disappointment turns into a sudden hunger to know more...Lahiri's achievement is something like Twinkle's. She breathes unpredictable life into the page, and the reader finishes each story reseduced, wishing he could spend a whole novel with its characters. There is nothing accidental about her success; her plots are as elegantly constructed as a fine proof in mathematics. To use the word Sanjeev eventually applies to Twinkle, Lahiri is 'wow.'"
--- The New York Times Book Review, July 11, 1999
"Lahiri's touch is delicate yet assured, leaving no room for flubbed notes or forced epiphanies."
--- Los Angeles Times Book Review, July 4, 1999
"[S]torytelling of surpassing kindness and skill."
--- San Francisco Chronicle, June 24, 1999