In her first novel since she won the Booker prize two decades ago, can Kiran Desai avoid resorting to stereotypes about the land of her birth? By Aditya Bahl The winter in Vermont is finally melting.

This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic’s archives to contextualize the present. Sign up here. My relationship with English began by force. Growing up in A Coruña, ...