A review by robinwalter
Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything by David Bellos

challenging informative slow-paced

5.0

I'm giving this one five stars for making me think. The author is an experienced translator and a teacher thereof, and so his expertise is unquestionable. Whether his his conclusions are is another matter, but for me, he writes with real insight and presents the whole issue of translation from perspectives I'd never considered before. He also does so with wit and humour - or at least with a wit and humour that appealed to me, judging by the number of other reviewers who complained about the lack of humour.  An example of the author's very dry, understated humour that made me smile, toward the end of the book

 I don’t know whether language is possible without thought—on the face of it, it must be, since so many people speak without thinking 

In all, a dense and informative read that challenged a lot of my preconceptions and definitely enhanced my appreciation for the critical role translation and translators play in the modern world. Not an easy read and at times it did seem a bit repetitive, but the concepts discussed fascinated me and the cogency of the author's presentation was impressive. For anyone interested in languages, I'd say this book is well worth the effort.