In Other Words

I thought this book would satisfy my Travel Memoir requirement in the Read Harder Challenge, but it wasn't really about travel. Rather, the author describes learning Italian, loving it so much she moves to Italy so she can immerse herself in the language. A native English speaker, she wrote this book in Italian, and then it was translated by Ann Goldstein (Elena Ferrante's translator). I am wondering why I haven't read Jhumpa Lahiri before–this was an excellent book. More books to add to my list!

Jhumpa Lahiri first spoke Bengali. Then she learned English.

She became a writer. A good writer. She won prizes. Big prizes. All in English.

One day she wanted to learn Italian. She started. She decided to move to Italy. She did. Then she wanted to write in Italian. She did.

She never felt so free as when she felt constrained to write in Italian.