YOU can take the girl out of India but you can't take India out of the girl as Ashimi Ganguli discovers when she starts a new life with Ashoke, her husband by arranged marriage, in Boston in the late 1960s.

They raise their family, son Gogol and daughter Sonia, in the Massachusetts suburbs, where they form a close circle of friends with other migr Bengalis.

Ashimi wears saris, cooks rice and curry and lives for the phone calls and letters from loved ones back home. Ashoke is equally loyal to his roots, but it's quite different for the children.

Much of the novel's focus is on Gogol, so named because Nikolai Gogol is his father's favourite author. There was supposed to be another name, a good Bengali name, bestowed by Ashimi's grandmother. But the letter never arrived and grandma died before the Gangulis could find out her intention.

Gogol spends his youth in the shadow of his name, which represents all the restraining traditions of Bengali culture of which he is desperate to escape. A chance comes when he goes to university and changes his name to Nikhil. It marks a rebirth for Gogol; he is free to be an American.

In her first novel, Lahiri handles big themes such as cultural identity and family ties with the delicacy of a butterfly, flitting between the main characters effortlessly and yet spinning a captivating and un-put-downable saga of our times. Thoroughly recommended.

Updated: 09:05 Wednesday, February 04, 2004