The American bestselling author Jhumpa Lahiri ("The Lowland," "In Other Words") undertook a daring experiment. As a speaker of two languages, English and Bengali, she set out to learn a third so well that she could not only speak it fluently but also write in it: Italian. This is the story of a cultural and linguistic adventure. Jhumpa Lahiri grew up with two languages: Bengali was spoken at home, while she learned to read and write in English in the USA. In both languages, she never felt completely at home. However, during a trip to Florence in 1994, she experienced a sudden, wild affair with Italian, a language that promised new freedom, adventure, and independence. But soon, the young lovers were separated again: Lahiri returned to New York, and for years, only a small...