The past several decades have seen an explosion of interest in narrative, with this multifaceted object of inquiry becoming a central concern in a wide range of disciplinary fields and research contexts. As accounts of what happened to particular people in particular circumstances and with specific consequences, stories have come to be viewed as a basic human strategy for coming to terms with time, process, and change However, the very predominance of narrative as a focus of interest across multiple disciplines makes it imperative for scholars, teachers, and students to have access to a comprehensive reference resource
Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Translation and the Meaning of Everything 
(2)In the guise of a book about translation this is a richly original cultural history ... A book for anyone interested in words, language and cultural anthropology. Mr Bellos's fascination with his subject is itself endlessly fascinating (The Economist )
For anyone with a passing interest in language this work is enthralling ... A wonderful celebration of the sheer diversity of language and the place it occupies in human endeavour. Conducted by a man who clearly knows his stuff, it is a whirlwind tour round the highways and byways of translation in all its glorious forms, from literary fiction to car repair manuals, from the Nuremberg trials to decoding at Bletchley Park (The Scotsman )
Bellos has numerous paradoxes, anecdotes and witty solutions ... his insights are thought provoking, paradoxical and a brilliant exposition of mankind's attempts to deal with the Babel of global communication (Michael Binyon The Times )
[A] witty, erudite exploration...[Bellos] delights in [translation's] chequered past and its contemporary ubiquity...He would like us to do more of it. With the encouragement of this book, we might even begin to enjoy it (Maureen Freely Sunday Telegraph )
Is That A Fish In Your Ear? is spiced with good and provocative things. At once erudite and unpretentious...[it is a] scintillating bouillabaisse (Frederic Raphael Literary Review )
Is That A Fish in Your Ear? by David Bellos (father of Alex of Numberland fame) is a fascinating book on the world of translation that might well be this year's Just My Type (Jonathan Ruppin, Foyles Booskhop )
Selected by The Times' 'Daily Universal Register' as a 'Try This' Book (The Times )
A fascinating...very readable study of the mysterious art and business of translation...Bellos asks big questions...and comes up with often surprising answers...sparky, thought-provoking (Nigeness )
Forget the fish-it's David Bellos you want in your ear when the talk is about translation. Bellos dispels many of the gloomy truisms of the trade and reminds us what an infinitely flexible instrument the English language (or any language) is. Sparkling, independent-minded analysis of everything from Nabokov's insecurities to Google Translate's felicities fuels a tender-even romantic-account of our relationship with words. (—natasha Wimmer, Translator Of Roberto Bolaño’s Savage Detectives And 2666 )
Is That a Fish in Your Ear? offers a lively survey of translating puns and poetry, cartoons and legislation, subtitles, news bulletins and the Bible (Matthew Reisz Times Higher Education Supplement )
Please read David Bellos's brilliant book (Michael Hofmann Guardian )
A clear and lively survey...This book fulfils a real need; there is nothing quite like it. (Robert Chandler Spectator )
In his marvellous study of the nature of translation...[David Bellos] has set out to make it fun...Essential reading for anyone with even a vague interest in language and translation - in short, it is a triumph (Shaun Whiteside Independent )
A dazzyingly inventive book (Adam Thirlwell New York Times )
Witty and perceptive...stimulating, lucid, ultimately cheering (Theo Dorgan Irish Times )
Superbly smart, supremely shrewd (Carlin Romano The Chronicle Review )
A wonderful, witty book about words, language and cultural anthropology by a scholar whose fascination with his subject is itself endlessly fascinating (The Economist Books of the Year 2011 )
Is That a Fish in Your Ear? strikes me as the best sort of nonfiction, an exhilarating work that takes up a subject we thought we understood - or knew we didn't - and then makes us see it afresh. Such high-order scholarly popularizations, accomplished with the grace and authority of a David Bellos, are themselves an irreplaceable kind of translation (Michael Dirda Washington Post )
Selected as a National Book Critics' Circle Award Criticism Finalist 2011 (NBCC )
Selected by the New York Times as one of the 100 Notable Books of 2011 (New York Times )
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Did you know that 'flavor of the month' originated in a marketing campaign in American ice-cream parlors in the 1940s, when a particular flavor would be specially promoted for a month at a time? And did you know that 'off the cuff' refers to the rather messy practice of writing impromptu notes on one's shirt cuff before speaking in public? These and many more idioms are explained and put into context in this second edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Idioms. The volume takes a fresh look at the idiomatic phrases and sayings that make English the rich and intriguing language that it is. This major new edition contains entries for over 5000 idioms, including 350 entirely new entries and over 500 new quotations. The text has been updated to include many new idioms using the findings of the Oxford English Reading Program, the biggest language research program in the world. The entries are supported by a wealth of illustrative quotations from a wide range of sources and periods and the text has been entirely redesigned so that it is both elegant and easy to use. Anyone interested in the colorful side of the English language will get hours of fun browsing this fascinating and informative volume.
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