If the antidote to a year of loneliness and trauma is art, then this novel is the answer. It is outstanding. A rare kind of literary fame. A hypnotic act of disappearance. The new novel by the Pulitzer Prize-winning and Man Booker Prize-nominated author is a poignant portrait of a woman, her choices, her conversations, her solitude in a beautiful and lonely Italian city. The woman moves alone through the city, her city. She strides over the bright sidewalks, crosses the bridges, walks through the shops, pools, and bars. She slows her pace to observe a couple arguing, to take in the sight of an elderly woman in the waiting room, and stops to drink her coffee in a shady spot. Sometimes her steps lead her to her grieving mother, who is trapped in her own solitude. Other times they take her to the train station, where the trains can carry her away for a brief moment. Yet over the course of a year, as one season gives way to the next, transformation awaits. On a day by the sea, both overwhelmed and refreshed by the vital warmth of the sun, her perspective will change forever. A rare work of fiction, "Whereabouts" – originally written in Italian and then translated by the author herself – brims with the impulse to transcend boundaries. By immersing herself in a new literary language, Lahiri has challenged herself to a new level of artistic creation. A radiant evocation of a city that captures a woman standing at one of life's thresholds, reflecting on what has been lost, and facing with equal hope and anger what may lie ahead. An extraordinary literary and linguistic achievement.