12/50: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Not even gonna lie or try to hide it: I'm a Lahiri fangirl. Blame the English 102 I took at my local community college where I was first introduced to her through the text book. Since that time, this book has been on my "MUST READ" list and only recently did I have the chance to do so.
I loved it. Lahiri has the same knack for creating excellent characters that ranks among Sherman Alexie and Jackie Kay, in my book. They're real, complex and sympathetic. The stories themselves wonderfully capture how the Indian characters reconcile and otherwise cope with their dual-identities in America. To me, characters such as hers are important because they capture and humanize experiences that privileged, white America likes to overlook and/or trivialize.
Personally, I read "The Namesake" before this and it's been too long to offer a more comprehensive comparison. As you'd expect from a collection of short stories, "Interpreter..." offers a more varied account of experiences, whereas "The Namesake" is a more in-depth account of one of those experiences. Either way, I don't think you can go wrong, but if you're on the fence, start with "Interpreter..." and go from there.