Untranslatable

There is a story behind every word.

There is a word behind every story.

Some concepts require a single word in other languages but paragraphs to explain in English.

There are times when it is impossible to have a direct translation of something, to understand an idea at once simple to one mind and unutterably impenetrable to another—except through the bridge of story, through a literal journey into another language, another culture, another mind.

The 14 stories in this book are bridges made of words—crossing into language landscapes of Japan, of Sweden, of France, of Portugal, of Tierra del Fuego—glimpses into the worldview and the mindset of cultures different enough from our own to produce a single word that encompasses a world of concepts.

Translating the untranslatable.


"I love Alma Alexander's writing. Reading one of her stories is like having a beautiful and intense conversation that you walk away from realizing that you've learned something you didn't know about yourself." – Leigh Grossman, author of The Green Lion and The Lost Daughters, creator of "Sense of Wonder"