Anya Kathay by Jhumpa Lahiri [Hardcover]

"One of the best-selling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author's first non-fiction book— 'A candid, captivating, and dynamic account of a writer's linguistic self-exploration.' — Kirkus Reviews (starred) ‘In Other Words’ is a revelation. At its core, it's a love story—an author's long and sometimes painful preoccupation with another language, and an intense passion that borders on obsession. Jhumpa Lahiri first fell in love with the Italian language after a college trip to Florence, and it overwhelmed her. Even though Jhumpa had been learning Italian for many years, she felt that true mastery of the language eluded her. To immerse herself fully in the language, she decided to move to Rome with her family. She was even willing to go through the ordeal of adopting a new language and world. There, she began reading and writing exclusively in Italian. ‘In Other Words’ is an autobiographical book written in Italian, which reveals the training and effort involved in expressing oneself in another language, and tells the story of an author's journey to finding a new language. This wholly original bilingual book also delves into linguistic and other exiles. Since Vladimir Nabokov, no one has portrayed such remarkable self-reflection and the inspirational narrative of self-examination and rediscovery with such depth and clarity."