The language in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Chekhovian short stories may as well be crafted from diamond—if you can find one word out of place in a Lahiri story, you’ve got a keener eye than me—and her The Namesake is one of the best books I’ve read this century. Like Namesake, The Lowland is also a novel about India, immigration, and America, but its central conflict—a good son marries his dead brother’s pregnant wife—promises to be Lahiri’s most delicious subject matter yet. I’m setting your expectations high, but if any author deserves high expectations, it’s Lahiri. (Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave, townhallseattle.org, 7 pm, free)