Mother Tongue

In 84 brief, brilliant texts that combine fiction and essay, an acclaimed Mexican author examines the role of language in our lives with insight and humor. Forced to work with used notebooks, students learn to get creative and fill the limited space. A man makes his way through Anna Karenina in fits and starts, telling himself that he’s laying the foundation for the day he’ll read it properly. A woman feels isolated with a husband and daughter who don’t speak her native language, and he begins to question how well he actually knows his wife. Touching on a host of celebrated authors who shaped his life and writing—from Homer to Kafka, Camus, and Beckett—Fabio Morábito offers a delightful, multifaceted meditation on expressing ourselves through words. What do our libraries say about us? What differentiates poetry from prose? Why do interpreters forget what they translate so quickly? How can reading change us and how others see us?