Summary

The section “The Crossing” Jhumpa describes a lake she wishes to swim across. She has seen others swim across so she knows it can be done. She spends a month swimming the circumference of the lake. Finally, with two friends, she swims across the lake. Jhumpa compares the way she once studied the Italian language to the way she approaches her swim across the lake. Just a few weeks after her successful swim across the lake, Jhumpa leaves America to live in Italy.

In the section “The Dictionary” Jhumpa buys an Italian dictionary with the definitions in English when she goes with her sister to Italy in 1994. She depends on the book to help her discover the meanings of the words she hears and reads. Twenty years later, Jhumpa decides to live in Rome. She doesn’t use the first...