In Other Words
In Other Words
Author: Jhumpa Lahiri
Desc: From the Pulitzer Prize winner a surprising powerful and eloquent nonfiction debut In Other Words is at heart a love story—of a long and sometimes difficult courtship and a passion that verges on obsession: that of a writer for another language. For Jhumpa Lahiri that love was for Italian which first captivated and capsized her during a trip to Florence after college. And although Lahiri studied Italian for many years afterward true mastery had always eluded her. So in 2012 seeking full immersion she decided to move to Rome with her family for “a trial by fire a sort of baptism” into a new language and world. In Rome Lahiri began to read and to write—initially in her journal—solely in Italian. In Other Words an autobiographical work written in Italian investigates the process of learning to express oneself in another language and describes the journey of a writer seeking a new voice. Presented in a dual-language format it is a book about exile linguistic and otherwise written with an intensity and clarity not seen since Nabokov. A startling act of self-reflection and a provocative exploration of belonging and reinvention.