THE UNKNOWN ERRORS OF OUR LIVES (2001)
The Unknown Errors Of Our Lives is Divakaruni’s second book of stories. In this collection, featuring tales set in India and America, Divakaruni illuminates the transformations of personal landscapes, real and imagined, brought about by the choices men and women make at every stage of their lives.
The stories include “Love Of A Good Man,” a tale of a happily
married Indian woman who must confront her past when her long-estranged
father begs to meet his only grandson; “Mrs. Dutta Writes A Letter,”
(selected for Best American Short Stories, 1999), where a
widow living in her son’s Calfornia home discovers that her old world
ways are an embarrassment to her daughter-in-law; “The Blooming Season
For Cacti,” where two women, uprooted from their native land by violence
and deception, find unexpected solace in each other; and the title
story, where an artist faced with her fiance’s past a week before her
wedding must make an important decision.
This book is published as The Lives of Strangers in the U.K. and as Bengalische Sterne in Germany.
READ THE FIRST STORY, "MRS. DUTTA WRITES A LETTER," HERE.
Praise for The Unknown Errors of Our Lives:
“Divakaruni’s stories are as irresistible as the impulse that leads her characters to surface into maturity, raising their heads above floods of silver ignorance.” (New York Times Book Review)
“This is an extraordinary collection, intelligently conceived and passionately written. Most of the stories illuminate the pain, loss, and alienation of the immigrant experience and transform them into the drama of our common human existence. Besides elegance and delight, we can also find wisdom here.” (Ha Jin, Author of National Book Award winning novel Waiting)
“Her literary voice is a sensual bridge between worlds. India and America. Children and parents. Men and women. Passion and pragmatism.” (USA Today)
“Classically shaped but spiked with the unexpected, these potent tales portray families shattered by violence and stretched to the breaking point between the wildly disparate worlds of India and the US…These hauntingly beautiful stories of epiphany and catharsis place Divakaruni in the vanguard of fine literary writers who touch a broad spectrum of readers.” (Booklist)
“Sensuously evocative…image-filled prose…intensely touching tales of lapsed communication, inarticulate love and redemptive memories.” (Publishers Weekly)
“A current of compassion and heartache runs through this remarkable collection. From old immigrant conundrums Divakaruni has spun something wondrous and new; she has created the stories that we will require in this Age of Diasporas. Divakaruni is a brilliant storyteller; she illuminates the world with her artistry and shakes the reader with her love.” (Junot Diaz)
