An emotionally-filled and poetically styled collection of short stories, Unaccustomed Earth explores motifs including migration, identity, and return of the past, portraying the lives and struggles of second-generation immigrants. Lahiri’s exemplary use literary elements and devices allows the reader to visualize secluded and apprehensive persons, uncomfortable in their new abodes. However, in alluding to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s quote in The Custom House, the title of the book suggests that the stories should reveal the opposite—in that transplanting peoples to new soil might be beneficial to their mental, social and financial well-beings, creating a shift in fortune. Nevertheless, as a young child, Jhumpa Lahiri experienced similar feelings to her fictional characters within the literary work, struggling with a divided identity as a product of cross-cultural diffusion. Her knowledge of alienation and variance from the norm, adds depth to the conflict, strengthening the atmosphere and emotions surrounding the eight detailed accounts. Her grave experience as a child is reflected in her character’s frequent oscillation between two antagonistic lifestyles. For juvenile readers, Lahiri’s words describe complexities involving migration patterns, cultural issues, alienation, and generational differences, which is reinforced by use of imagery, numerous point-of-views, conflict, irony and diction. The first story in Unaccustomed Earth identifies the relationships and conflicts surrounding Ruma, a well-educated second-generation immigrant, who lives in Seattle with her American husband, Adam, and her son Akash. Throughout the beginning of the short story, generational and cultural conflicts are revealed as Ruma’s father arrives for a short visit. A widower growing up in Bengali, Ruma believes that her father maintains strong indigenous values. However, her assumptions of her