Dreaming in Hindi: Coming Awake in Another Language - Paperback

by Katherine Russell Rich (Author)

An eye-opening and courageous memoir that explores what learning a new language can teach us about distant worlds and, ultimately, ourselves.

After miraculously surviving a serious illness, Katherine Rich found herself at an impasse in her career as a magazine editor. She spontaneously accepted a freelance writing assignment to go to India, where she found herself thunderstruck by the place and the language, and before she knew it she was on her way to Udaipur, a city in the northwestern state of Rajasthan, in order to learn Hindi. Rich documents her experiences--ranging from the bizarre to the frightening to the unexpectedly exhilarating--using Hindi as the lens through which she is given a new perspective not only on India, but on the radical way the country and the language itself were changing her. Fascinated by the process, she went on to interview linguistics experts around the world, reporting back from the frontlines of the science wars on what happens in the brain when we learn a new language. She brings both of these experiences together seamlessly in Dreaming in Hindi, a remarkably unique and thoughtful account of self-discovery.

Back Jacket

"Riveting and sharply observed." Wall Street Journal

"Verbally and emotionally dazzling ... [Rich] became fluent in the language of human possibility." O, the Oprah Magazine, "10 Top Reads of 2009" In this mesmerizing chronicle journalist Katherine Russell Rich plunges into new language and new life in India. By turns funny, frightening and deeply exhilarating, Dreaming in Hindi details the extraordinary year Rich spent learning to speak Hindi in the ancient city of Udaipur. The language continually led her into unexpected far corners: She taught art at a school for the deaf, judged a Michael Jackson impersonators contest, watched as political tension erupted into violence, and by the end, found herself completely transformed. Seamlessly combining stories from her personal journey with wide-ranging reporting on the science of language acquisition, Dreaming in Hindi offers a thought-provoking account of what learning a new tongue can teach us about distant worlds and, ultimately, about ourselves.

"Rich is a charming raconteur." San Francisco Chronicle

KATHERINE RUSSELL RICH, author of the award-winning memoir The Red Devil: To Hell with Cancer and Back, has written for the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, Salon, and O, the Oprah Magazine.

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