The Boundary by Jhumpa Lahiri, 2018
The magic trick:
Not giving the backstory at the start but instead saving it as the world changer in the story’s second half
Jhumpa Lahiri writes beautiful stories. Not a particularly original observation, but still worth noting.
This one really got me. I fell into its traps and rhythms and was caught off-guard by its surprises.
Those surprises, I hope I can report without ruining the surprise, come in the form of late-in-the-text exposition.
This is weird.
Usually the exposition shows up early on, right?
So it’s interesting to flip the reader’s understanding of what they’ve just read by inserting crucial backstory at the end.
And that’s quite a trick on Lahiri’s part.
The selection:
I pretend not to watch them, to be discreet. I do the housework and water the garden, but I can’t help noticing how happy and excited they are. I hear the girls’ voices as they run across the lawn, I learn their names. Since the guests usually leave the sliding door open, I overhear what the parents say to each other as they settle into the house, as they unpack their suitcases and decide what to have for lunch.
The cottage where my family lives is a few yards away, behind a tall hedge that forms a kind of screen. For years, our house was just a room that served as both kitchen and bedroom for the three of us. Then, two years ago, when I turned thirteen, my mother started working for the elderly gentleman, and, after saving up enough money, my parents asked the man who owns the property if they could add a small room for me.
As always, join the conversation in the comments section below, on SSMT Facebook or on Twitter @ShortStoryMT.
Subscribe to the Short Story Magic Tricks Monthly Newsletter to get the latest short story news, contests and fun.
Short Story Magic Tricks 
Your comment about Kawabata’s One Arm struck a chord. I’ve been using that ‘trick’ for many years but have never phrased it. it so well. I’ll be closely following your posts from now on.