Fifty Sounds Av Polly Barton

Why Japan? In <i>Fifty Sounds</i>, winner of the 2019 Fitzcarraldo Editions Essay Prize, Polly Barton attempts to exhaust her obsession with the country she moved to at the age of 21, before eventually becoming a literary translator. From min-min, the sound of air screaming, to jin-jin, the sound of being touched for the very first time, from hi''sori, the sound of harbouring masochist tendencies, to mote-mote, the sound of becoming a small-town movie star, <i>Fifty Sounds </i>is a personal dictionary of the Japanese language, recounting her life as an outsider in Japan. Irreverent, humane, witty and wise, <i>Fifty Sounds</i> is an exceptional debut about the quietly revolutionary act of learning, speaking, and living in another language.