“This story is based on a gentleman who indeed did... used to come to my parents' house in 1971 from Bangladesh. He was at the University of Rhode Island. And I was four, four years old, at the time, and so I actually don't have any memories of this gentleman.”

Jhumpa Lahiri is an American novelist and short story writer of Bengali descent. She gained prominence for her nuanced exploration of immigrant experiences, particularly through works like *Interpreter of Maladies* and *The Namesake*. Her writing often examines cultural displacement and the complexities of identity.