Tuesday 22 March 2015, 7pm – 8pm | Free, booking essential
The Italian Cultural Institute, 39 Belgrave Square, London, SW1X 8NX
Jhumpa Lahiri will discuss her latest book, In Other Words (translated from Italian by Ann Goldstein), with Guardian books editor Claire Armitstead.
In Other Words is at heart a love story: 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. Although Lahiri studied Italian for many years afterwards, full mastery had always eluded her. So in 2012, seeking full immersion, she decided to uproot herself, her husband and two children, and move to Rome for a ‘trial by fire, a sort of baptism’ into a new world and way of being.
Over the course of three years, Lahiri read, spoke and wrote – even in her journal – solely in Italian. In spare and luminous prose, In Other Words explores the often emotionally fraught links between identity and language.