Summary

In the section “The Diary” Jhumpa and her family arrive in Rome just before the traditional August holiday. Most of the people in the town have left for vacations. The second day they are there Jhumpa is unable to unlock the door to their apartment after a day of shopping. They have to wait for a locksmith. Her children cry to go back to America. Although life in Rome seems impossible at first Jhumpa notices a change in her writing. When she sits down to write in her diary one day she begins writing in Italian. She realizes at this point she no longer hears English in her brain. That language is being replaced by Italian. Even though she knows the Italian in which she is writing is not grammatically correct and she sometimes can’t find the right words...