--- product_id: 41295491 title: "In Other Words: A Memoir" price: "₱2213" currency: PHP in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.ph/products/41295491-in-other-words-a-memoir store_origin: PH region: Philippines --- # In Other Words: A Memoir **Price:** ₱2213 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** In Other Words: A Memoir - **How much does it cost?** ₱2213 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.ph](https://www.desertcart.ph/products/41295491-in-other-words-a-memoir) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling author of The Namesake delivers a powerful meditation on the process of learning to express herself in Italian—and the stunning journey of a writer seeking a new voice. • "The most evocative, unpretentious, astute account of a writing life I have read.” — The Washington Post On a post-college visit to Florence, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri fell in love with the Italian language. Twenty years later, seeking total immersion, she and her family relocated to Rome, where she began to read and write solely in her adopted tongue. In Other Words is a startling act of self-reflection. Review: Refreshing Deep Dive Into Language Learning - A deeply personal and moving account of learning a foreign language. Some readers have griped that she spends too much time discussing the process of learning Italian, ignoring other, arguably more interesting aspects of life in Rome, like culture and the logistics of moving abroad. Personally, though, I appreciated this intense focus. As someone who has learned several foreign languages, lived abroad in various countries for years, and read travel literature extensively, I was relieved to find a writer who didn’t wax poetic about travel and try to neatly summarize another culture, who instead chose the riskier (and braver) task of showing just how messy and jarring being immersed in another language is. (Read enough travel literature, and you too, will become tired of neat, beautifully-written narratives that serve only to show how brave and smart the writer thinks they are, while pretending to be about loftier topics like culture and politics. Vulnerability is refreshing, even if it occasionally produces unpolished sentences.) Although her writing is sparse, and sometimes cliché, it manages to pack a punch. It’s both deeply vulnerable and distant, a tension that kept me interested until the end. It’s certainly not written for mass appeal. I suspect those who’d be most interested are language learners who can relate to the author’s experiences. Towards the end of the book, she draws a parallel between her writing in Italian and Matisse’s abstract cutouts. The analogy seems apt: this book isn’t about realism, despite its autobiographical nature. It’s more of an impression, an intense depiction of learning, rather than a real life portrait of life abroad. The following excerpts capture her intentions in writing this book quite well: - “It’s a travel book, more interior, I would say, than geographic…And absurd journey, given that the traveler never reaches her destination.” - “In Italian, I’m moving toward abstraction. The places are undefined, the characters so far are nameless, without a particular cultural identity. The result, I think, is writing that is freed in certain ways from the concrete world.” Review: Inspiring - Jhumpa Lahiri is among my favorite writers, but my admiration for her has elevated to another level of respect with her first non-fiction work, In Other Words. This is no ordinary memoir or collection of reflective essays. This is a writer taking her passion for the art and beauty of language to an unparalleled degree of exploration. Lahiri’s lifelong love of Italian compelled her to move with her family to Rome in order to immerse herself in the language. Not only did she desire to speak Italian, she decided to write exclusively in it as well. Her devotion to Italian went so far as abandoning her use of English. She recounts this journey with great honesty and candor, revealing how vulnerable, insecure, and uncertain she felt along the way. Even with all she has given to learning the language, Lahiri shares her trepidation that her Italian will forever be inadequate and ungraspable, but I found her expressiveness in the language to be quite profound. In the memoir’s simplicity, she is insightful and full of great wisdom and self-reflection. I was fascinated with how smooth, graceful, and exquisite her prose was in translation from Italian back into English. She confesses her feelings of estrangement from her native language of Bengali and her dominant language of English. She discusses the relationship between art and imperfection, passion and impulse, and alienation and acceptance. She writes to discover and make sense of herself and the world, and the result is a rapturous memoir and an altogether mesmerizing treatise for anyone who dares to undertake a passion with every ounce of sacrifice and commitment required to make it possible. I loved this book. It is incredibly inspiring, and I admire Lahiri more than ever. She is a talented writer and an amazing human being. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #41,207 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #45 in Culinary Biographies & Memoirs #131 in Traveler & Explorer Biographies #1,027 in Memoirs (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.2 out of 5 stars 1,281 Reviews | ## Images ![In Other Words: A Memoir - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81Z-61ljeRL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Refreshing Deep Dive Into Language Learning *by S***N on March 27, 2016* A deeply personal and moving account of learning a foreign language. Some readers have griped that she spends too much time discussing the process of learning Italian, ignoring other, arguably more interesting aspects of life in Rome, like culture and the logistics of moving abroad. Personally, though, I appreciated this intense focus. As someone who has learned several foreign languages, lived abroad in various countries for years, and read travel literature extensively, I was relieved to find a writer who didn’t wax poetic about travel and try to neatly summarize another culture, who instead chose the riskier (and braver) task of showing just how messy and jarring being immersed in another language is. (Read enough travel literature, and you too, will become tired of neat, beautifully-written narratives that serve only to show how brave and smart the writer thinks they are, while pretending to be about loftier topics like culture and politics. Vulnerability is refreshing, even if it occasionally produces unpolished sentences.) Although her writing is sparse, and sometimes cliché, it manages to pack a punch. It’s both deeply vulnerable and distant, a tension that kept me interested until the end. It’s certainly not written for mass appeal. I suspect those who’d be most interested are language learners who can relate to the author’s experiences. Towards the end of the book, she draws a parallel between her writing in Italian and Matisse’s abstract cutouts. The analogy seems apt: this book isn’t about realism, despite its autobiographical nature. It’s more of an impression, an intense depiction of learning, rather than a real life portrait of life abroad. The following excerpts capture her intentions in writing this book quite well: - “It’s a travel book, more interior, I would say, than geographic…And absurd journey, given that the traveler never reaches her destination.” - “In Italian, I’m moving toward abstraction. The places are undefined, the characters so far are nameless, without a particular cultural identity. The result, I think, is writing that is freed in certain ways from the concrete world.” ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Inspiring *by R***K on March 1, 2016* Jhumpa Lahiri is among my favorite writers, but my admiration for her has elevated to another level of respect with her first non-fiction work, In Other Words. This is no ordinary memoir or collection of reflective essays. This is a writer taking her passion for the art and beauty of language to an unparalleled degree of exploration. Lahiri’s lifelong love of Italian compelled her to move with her family to Rome in order to immerse herself in the language. Not only did she desire to speak Italian, she decided to write exclusively in it as well. Her devotion to Italian went so far as abandoning her use of English. She recounts this journey with great honesty and candor, revealing how vulnerable, insecure, and uncertain she felt along the way. Even with all she has given to learning the language, Lahiri shares her trepidation that her Italian will forever be inadequate and ungraspable, but I found her expressiveness in the language to be quite profound. In the memoir’s simplicity, she is insightful and full of great wisdom and self-reflection. I was fascinated with how smooth, graceful, and exquisite her prose was in translation from Italian back into English. She confesses her feelings of estrangement from her native language of Bengali and her dominant language of English. She discusses the relationship between art and imperfection, passion and impulse, and alienation and acceptance. She writes to discover and make sense of herself and the world, and the result is a rapturous memoir and an altogether mesmerizing treatise for anyone who dares to undertake a passion with every ounce of sacrifice and commitment required to make it possible. I loved this book. It is incredibly inspiring, and I admire Lahiri more than ever. She is a talented writer and an amazing human being. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A journey of self-discovery *by C***L on July 31, 2019* I bought this book late last year, as I was in the midst of learning Mandarin. I thought it would inspire me in my own language-learning journey. IN OTHER WORDS opens with a beautiful metaphoric analogy of the author swimming in a lake. Metaphorically speaking, that lake is Italian--the language itself. The book reads like a diary (it's based on one). In the first third of the book, Ms. Lahiri seems hesitant, unsure. She uses very simple words and short sentences--almost childlike. At one point, she reveals that she feels hesitant and childlike as she writes in Italian: it is a stark contrast from her facile relationship with English, in which she-as a Pulitzer Prize-winning author-is extremely accomplished. The endeavor of learning Italian is, to me, laudable. But when you learn/realize that the book was actually written in Italian, then translated into English, you realize that this is a major accomplishment. As the author gains mastery in Italian, the writing/vocabulary and personality seem more sophisticated, more grown-up. Ms. Lahiri writes of the year she and her family spent living in Italy, of her encounters in stores, of her conversations with Italians--many of whom are friends or acquaintances. I enjoyed reading those anecdotes. The book is not just about language-learning: IOW chronicles the author's self-discovery, as she fulfills this longtime dream. I marvelled at her determination. For, as she states in the book, there is no reason for her to learn Italian, except that she loves it. I compared my language-learning approach (which I wrote about on my blog), and you will, too. If you're learning a new language, you will enjoy reading of the author's inspirational experience. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.ph/products/41295491-in-other-words-a-memoir](https://www.desertcart.ph/products/41295491-in-other-words-a-memoir) --- *Product available on Desertcart Philippines* *Store origin: PH* *Last updated: 2026-05-29*