Nine Epic Reasons to Love Greek

For word nerds, language loons, and grammar geeks, an impassioned and informative literary leap into the wonders of the Greek language. Here are nine ways Greek can transform your relationship to time and to those around you, nine reflections on the language of Sappho, Plato, and Thucydides, and its relevance to our lives today, nine chapters that will leave readers with a new passion for a very old language, nine epic reasons to love Greek.

The Ingenious Language is a love song dedicated to the language of history’s greatest poets, philosophers, adventurers, lovers, adulterers, and generals. Greek, as Marcolongo explains in her buoyant and entertaining prose, is unsurpassed in its beauty and expressivity, but it can also offer us a way seeing the world and our place in it in new ways. She takes readers on an astonishing journey, at the end of which, while it may still be Greek to you, you’ll have nine reasons to be glad it is.

No batteries or prior knowledge of Greek required!

“Andrea Marcolongo is today’s Montaigne.”—André Aciman, author of Call Me by Your Name

“Fascinating. Marcolongo transforms nine linguistic peculiarities into existential questions.”—La Stampa

“Extraordinary and absolutely original [...] with a little ancient Greek, life is more exciting, colorful, and attractive.”—Italian Association for Classic Culture

Andrea Marcolongo
Andrea Marcolongo is an Italian journalist, writer, Classics scholar, and former speech writer for Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. The Ingenious Language was a bestseller in Italy and in many of the other dozen countries in which it has been published thus far. She is also the author of The Heroic Measure.

• Nov 7 2019
  “Exhilarating.”
  — The Guardian
• Oct 24 2019
  “...a brilliant meditation on language and life.”
  — Bookriot
• Oct 8 2019
  “...has the potential to change your sense of reality.”
  — Refinery29
• Sep 10 2019
  “...delight in this spirited defense of the effort being worth the reward.”
  — Publishers Weekly