Inspiration for Unaccustomed Earth

I believe that Jhumpa Lahiri was inspired to write Unaccustomed Earth by her personal experience growing up as an Indian in New England. In all eight of her stories the characters have four traits in common. All of them are Indian, specifically Bengali, all either live in New England or have at some point, all are part of a larger community of Bengalis, and all are plagued by some familial or other relationship difficulty. The first two of these traits are definitely shared by Lahiri, as explained in the "about the author" section. Though it is not directly stated, it is reasonable to assume that Lahiri was a part of a larger community of Indians in Rhode Island. I make this assumption based on the familiar and casual way she places all of her characters, who are in a similar setting as she was, in these groups. It is possible that she takes characters in a familiar setting and culture and uses them to address a universal issue of friction in relationships. At the same time, it is also possible that Lahiri believes this setting is a catalyst for these issues, and this is her inspiration for naming her book from the quote by Hawthorne.