A Lake

Jhumpa uses a lake across which she wishes to swim to represent her journey in learning to both speak and write in Italian.

Italy

Jhumpa describes three trips to Italy during the course of this story. She goes there first with her sister in 1994. It is during this trip to Florence that Jhumpa falls in love with the Italian language. In 2000 Jhumpa travels to Venice and a few months later is invited to the Mantua literary festival. It was at that festival that she met a couple of Italian publishers who helped improve her Italian by speaking to her only in that language. Jhumpa feels it is this couple who gives her the key to unlock the language she loves so much. Nearly 20 years after her first trip, Jhumpa and her family moved to Rome to live.

A Pocket Dictionary

When Jhumpa and her sister make...