How do we really make ourselves understood to other people? This book shows how, from puns to poetry, news bulletins to the Bible, Asterix to Swedish films, translation is at the heart of everything we do - and makes us who we are.

Is That a Fish in Your Ear? by David Bellos asks: how do we really make ourselves understood to other people? This funny, wise and life-affirming language book shows how, from puns to poetry, news bulletins to the Bible, Asterix to Swedish films, translation is at the heart of everything we do - and makes us who we are.

Selected by The New York Times as one of the 100 Notable Books of 2011

'A wonderful, witty book ... richly original, endlessly fascinating ... for anyone interested in words' Economist, Books of the Year

'A scintillating bouillabaisse ... spiced with good and provocative things' Literary Review

'Dazzlingly inventive' The New York Times

'Clear and lively ... There is nothing quite like it' Spectator