Here & There: A Quiet Shelf

Lost in Translation: an illustrated compendium of untranslatable words from around the world, by Ella Frances Sanders (Ten Speed Press) Week – Wildcard Sometimes our English language fails us. There [...]

Here & There: A Quiet Shelf Published 9:29 am Friday, July 17, 2026 Lost in Translation: an illustrated compendium of untranslatable words from around the world, by Ella Frances Sanders (Ten Speed Press) Week – Wildcard

Sometimes our English language fails us. There have been moments where I’m grasping for a word but one in Spanish or French pops in my head instead, and the literal translation just doesn’t cut it. This book is a tribute to the untranslatable words from many languages.

So many words have a unique cultural significance, and I loved reading this collection of the many nuanced moments they can capture. Ella Frances Sanders is such a wonderful observer of the world. Her books are like children’s books, but for adults.

We’re delighted by calming illustrations on every page. Sanders has published six books, and each is full of whimsy and an enchanting feeling that I keep wanting to return to. Her drawings are imperfect, and therefore more memorable.

They have a rawness that is hard to come across in our overly polished digital world. Lost in Translation showcases fifty untranslatable words. Each page has an illustration to evoke the word’s meaning, and a deeper dive into the word’s significance.

Sanders exposes the subtleties of communication and cultural tells that can live in a language. Whenever I revisit this book, my mind wanders with each page. These words can take you to a strong memory of a place, a feeling, an experience.

For example: “Komorebi n. The sunlight that filters through the leaves of the trees... There is something wonderfully evocative and uniquely magical about sunlight filtered through green foliage.

Japanese” “Szimpatikus adj. When meeting someone for the first time, and your intuition tells you that they are a good person, you can refer to them as ‘szimpatikus.’ Hungarian”

This takes me back to many moments spent laying under trees on my lunch breaks from stuffy office jobs that didn’t suit me. The word also takes me back to the ground floor of the Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona, Spain, where Antoni Gaudí tried to capture this feeling by sculpting columns and stained glass ceilings to mimic how light calmly drifts through a sunlit forest canopy. This book is excellent for any globetrotter or polylinguist, or simply anyone who appreciates language and that deep satisfaction of finding the exact right word for a very specific situation.

Let me know if this found a place on your shelf. This book is available at The Kimberley Public Library through the BC Interlibrary Connect. Connect with Samantha Najarro at HereandTherePress.com