What made me decide to read this book was a post on X: "This book supports all language learners." And there was a quote from it in the following thread:

L’unica cosa che possiedo è la volontà, la fiducia cieca ma sincera che mi si capisca, che riesca a capire me stessa.

わたしにあるのは意志と、わかってもらえる、自分自身が理解できる、という盲目的だが心からの信頼だけだ。

All I have is will and blind but heartfelt trust that I will be understood, that I will understand myself.

Jhumpa Lahiri had written in English before this book, but it's written in her third language, Italian.

Jhumpa Lahiri is from Bengal, India, and her family went first to the UK, then the US. She grew up speaking Bengali at home and English everywhere else. She said Bengali was like her mother and English her stepmother. Her parents hated when she spoke English. Speaking English made her feel apart from them. She was kind of uncomfortable with both languages and needed a third language.

When she heard Italian while visiting Firenze, she totally fell for it and began learning it. She was already an acclaimed writer but decided to write in Italian. That must've been insanely tough. But she did it. And this book shows us the process with great pain and joy. I was so impressed by her attitude — her humility and passion toward language itself. She's seeing the world like a newborn baby through this new language. I highly recommend this book. It's full of beautiful metaphors and it'll motivate you to learn, whatever your target language is.