Jhumpa Lahiri

When she started kindergarten in Kingston, Rhode Island, Lahiri’s teacher chose to call by her pet name, Jhumpa, because it was much easier to pronounce than her “proper name”. She graduated from South Kingstown High School and got her BA in English literature from Barnard College of Columbia University in the year 1989. then she received multiple degrees from Boston University: an MFA in Creative Writing, an MA in English, an MA in Comparative Literature, and a PhD in Renaissance Studies. Jhumpa has also taught creative writing at the Rhode Island School of Design and Boston University.

The best place to start is the Selected Shorts series, the earliest of Jhumpa Lahiri's multi-book series: it opens with For Better and for Worse (1993) and runs to 17 books across 1993–2012, ending with Poe! (2012).

Jhumpa Lahiri has 37 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1993 and 2024. 17 of them belong to 1 named series — the largest being the Selected Shorts series with 17 books — and 20 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Jhumpa Lahiri's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Selected Shorts (1993–2012, 17 books).

This guide splits Jhumpa Lahiri's 37 books into 1 named series and 20 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Selected Shorts (17 books, 1993–2012).