She explains that to live without your own language is to “feel weightless, and, at the same time, overloaded”-like breathing the air of “a different altitude.” I often found myself “hugging that shore” of Ann Goldstein’s English translation, but reading in this way allows the reader to relate with the joys and frustrations of learning a new language with clarity. Akin to swimming in a lake, she describes abandoning the shore to swim across as total immersion. This bilingual edition of her book allows novice learners of the language (like myself) to read her original Italian and experience her metaphors for learning a new language firsthand. Letting go of her foothold in English, she invites the reader on a steadfast pursuit to master the Italian language, and along the way she shares how language has played a role in her perceptions of the world and, likewise, how the world perceives her. It’s notably her first book written in Italian and her first autobiographical work. J humpa Lahiri’s In Other Words is a vulnerable journey of self-exploration by means of linguistic exile.
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