Is That a Fish in Your Ear?

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

Selected as a National Book Critics' Circle Award Criticism Finalist 2011

NBCC