The Language of Thieves

Reviews / Votes

"A deeply personal project, one that probes the meaning of language and family, inheritance and debt...[Puchner's enthusiasm] inspires illuminating detours into subjects like the history of Esperanto and the birth of simultaneous interpretation at the Nuremberg trials. What endures is his fascination with the resourcefulness and resilience of generations of travelers, like the ones who came to his childhood home in Nuremberg, drawn by a hidden zinken." -- Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim - New York Times Book Review "The Language of Thieves is a revelation: in telling the story of an underground language, Martin Puchner exposes a hidden corner of Europe's-and his own family's-surprising past. Entirely original, infectiously curious, by turns playful and poignant, it offers at once a fresh, fascinating insight into history and a thoughtful meditation on identity and belonging. The book sings with Puchner's pleasure in the power of words to move, delight, deceive, and connect us." -- Maya Jasanoff, author of The Dawn Watch "Martin Puchner's The Language of Thieves is at its core a gripping autobiography dealing with the actions of non-Jewish Germans, both victims and perpetrators, in the Third Reich and their legacy to their children and-in Puchner's case-their grandchildren. A brilliantly written, compelling read about language, displacement, and how the past forms all of us today." -- Sander L. Gilman, author of Jewish Self-Hatred: Anti-Semitism and the Hidden Language of the Jews "Puchner, a professor of English and Comparative Literature at Harvard, brilliantly integrates the personal and the professional in this intriguing account of his quest to learn as much as possible about Rotwelsch...Rich with insight and vivid character sketches, this moving and well-informed cultural history deserves a wide readership." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) " A compelling mixture of memoir and philology." -- Kirkus