One week after moving from the United States to Rome, Jhumpa Lahiri begins writing a secret diary - in Italian not English. In Other Words is the result: a memoir of language-learning and Lahiri’s quest to discover a new authorial voice.

As any language learner knows, those early weeks are humbling.

“I write in a terrible, embarrassing Italian, full of mistakes. Without correcting, without a dictionary, by instinct alone.” (55)

She stops reading in English and through reading slowly in Italian rediscovers “the pleasure of reading.” Every book completed “seems a feat.”

For Lahiri, language, identity, and cultural heritage are raw topics. She considers herself a “linguistic exile” from India yet also feels a “continuous estrangement” from the US: a person without country or specific culture. A person marginalised even from the word exile:

“Those who don’t belong to any specific place can’t, in fact, return anywhere. The concepts of exile and return imply a point of origin, a homeland. Without a homeland and without a mother tongue, I wander the world, even at my desk. In the end I realise that it wasn’t a true exile: far from it. I am exiled even from the definition of exile.” (133)

One of the most charged chapters is The Wall - in which Lahiri describes her appearance as being a hindrance to being accepted linguistically in Italy. People assume she cannot speak Italian, that her Italian is flawed, that they won’t understand.

“They don’t appreciate that I am working hard to speak their language; rather, it irritates them.” (139)

Taking him at face value, no one expresses surprise when her Caucasian husband speaks Italian.

Lahiri describes In Other Words as a “hesitant” book. It is. It’s short and personal. For those living a foreign language environment, though, there’s much to recognise and empathise with. This is Lahiri’s diary in and about Italian: her private triumph. I wish I were as dedicated.