Babel

Author: Gaston Dorren

Language: English

Summary: BABEL takes you to the 20 mightiest languages of our time. Half of the world population are native speakers of one of these 20. Well over three quarters can speak at least one of them. And just over 90% live in countries where one of them is used by central government. Continue reading “Babel”

Lingo: Around Europe in Sixty Languages

Author: Gaston Dorren

Language: English

Summary: Welcome to Europe as you’ve never known it before, seen through the peculiarities of its languages and dialects. Combining linguistics and cultural history, Gaston Dorren takes us on an intriguing tour of the continent, from Proto-Indo-European (the common ancestor of most European languages) to the rise and rise of English, via the complexities of Welsh plurals and Czech pronunciation.

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Lost in Translation

Author: Nicole Mones

Language: English

Summary: Expatriate translator Alice Mannegan spends her nights in Beijing’s smoky bars, seeking fleeting encounters with Chinese men to blot out the shame of her racist father back in Texas. But when she signs on to an archaeological expedition searching for the missing bones of Peking Man in China’s remote Northwest deserts, her world cracks open. As the group follows the trail of the Jesuit philosopher/paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin to close in on one of archaeology’s greatest mysteries, Alice finds herself increasingly drawn to a Chinese professor who is shackled by his own painful memories. Love in all its forms–human, sexual, divine, between a nation and its history, a man and his past, a father and his daughter–drives the story to its breathtaking finish. Continue reading “Lost in Translation”

found in translation

Found in Translation: How Language Shapes Our Lives and Transforms the World

Author: Nataly Kelly and Jost Zetzsche

Language: English

Summary: Translation affects every aspect of your life – and we’re not just talking about the obvious things, like world politics and global business. Translation affects you personally, too. The books you read. The movies you watch. The food you eat. Your favorite sports team. The opinions you hold dear. The religion you practice. Even your looks and, yes, your love life. Right this very minute, translation is saving lives, perhaps even yours.Translation influences everything from holy books to hurricane warnings, poetry to Pap smears. It’s needed by both the masses and the millionaires. Translation converts the words of dictators and diplomats, princes and pop stars, bus drivers and baseball players. Translation fuels the global economy, prevents wars, and stops the outbreak of disease. From tummy tucks to terrorist threats, it’s everywhere.
This book will help you see how the products you use, the freedoms you enjoy, and the pleasures in which you partake are made possible by translation. – Source: Amazon.com

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Ways to disappear

 

Author: Idra Novey

Language: English

Summary: Deep in gambling debt, the celebrated Brazilian writer Beatriz Yagoda is last seen holding a suitcase and a cigar and climbing into an almond tree. She abruptly vanishes. In snowy Pittsburgh, her American translator Emma hears the news and, against the wishes of her boyfriend and Beatriz’s two grown children, flies immediately to Brazil. There, in the sticky, sugary heat of Rio, Emma and her author’s children conspire to solve the mystery of Yagoda’s curious disappearance and staunch the colorful demands of her various outstanding affairs: the rapacious loan shark with a zeal for severing body parts, and the washed-up and disillusioned editor who launched Yagoda’s career years earlier. Idra Novey’s exhilarating debut is both a novel of ideas and a novel of intrigue, an innovative combination of mystery, noir, and humor. Source: amazon.com

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