Best Book Only Read in L2
Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2017 9:25 pm
My native language in English.
The best book I've read (but only in Italian, never in English) is Il deserto dei Tartari by Dino Buzzati.
Why?
Anyone else have a favorite they've never read in their native language, but only in L2?
The best book I've read (but only in Italian, never in English) is Il deserto dei Tartari by Dino Buzzati.
Why?
- It is a powerful book on universal themes, told in very simple language that is easy to read. This simple, easy language masks the author's iron fist, because the reader is in for a rough ride. Buzzati actually reminds me a lot of Graham Greene that way.
It's very obscure to American readers. I had never heard of it before and only read it because I was studying Italian. My whole reason for language learning is to shake up the default sort order of what I read. In English, something called "The Tartar Steppe" by some guy named Buzzati would be at the bottom of my list and something I'd never get to. In Italian, though, it shot to the top--and I'm glad.
Apparently, it was a precursor to and foundational novel for the development of magical realism (so says Wikipedia, but it seems plausible).
It's very much a love it or hate it book.
Anyone else have a favorite they've never read in their native language, but only in L2?