The Genius of Language Fifteen Writers Reflect on Their Mother Tongues

A collection of original essays reflects on their writers' formative experiences of language and culture, from Bharati Mukherjee's appreciation of the Bangla language after the Hindu-Muslim riots of 1946, to Amy Tan's frustration with comparisons between English and Chinese, to Josef Skvoreck's decision to learn English so he could write a fan letter. Reprint. 12,500 first printing.