Speaking in Tongues

So enjoyable and stimulating, and it made me probe more deeply, or differently, my own relationship with the languages I grew up speaking – Sunjeev Sahota, Booker-shortlisted author of THE CHINA ROOM[Speaking in Tongues] enhance[s] our appreciation of what’s actually involved in turning one language into another… a spry exchange… in absorbing detail * Observer *Translation is treated here not as a mechanical process but a creative act fraught with philosophical complications…stimulating and occasionally surprising * Wall Street Journal *A mithril-blend of scholarship and artistry that will transform your ideas of language, translation, identity and possibly the universe. – Junot DiazYou could read this book in an hour. You could think about it for the rest of your life * Kirkus Reviews *One of the world’s greatest novelists * Financial Times *Thought-provoking * 4Columns *Cerebral, far-reaching … Coetzee and Dimópulos engage comfortably and earnestly, imbuing the erudite conversation with a natural rhythm … littered with pearls of insight … a rewarding rumination on translation, language, and power * Publishers Weekly *Anything J.M. Coetzee writes deserves our full attention * Evening Standard, on The Death of Jesus *

J.M. Coetzee’s work includes Waiting for the Barbarians, Life & Times of Michael K, Boyhood, Youth, Disgrace, Summertime, The Childhood of Jesus and, most recently, The Schooldays of Jesus. He was the first author to win the Booker Prize twice and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003.

Mariana Dimópulos is an Argentine writer, translator, and teacher. Specializing in German philosophy and the work of Walter Benjamin, she has published four novels. The last of these, Quemar El Cielo (2019), was a finalist on the shortlist of the Fundación Medife-Filba Novel Prize in the year of its publication. She taught at the University of Buenos Aires, and now lives in Germany.