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The Language of Thieves: My Family’s Obsession with a Secret Code the Nazis Tried to Eliminate
Maybe someday
39
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
34/100Critics
44/100Scholars
Author:
Martin Puchner
Publisher:
W. W. Norton & Company
Date:
October 13, 2020
Centuries ago in middle Europe, a coded language appeared, scrawled in graffiti and spoken only by people who were "wiz" (in the know). This hybrid language, dubbed Rotwelsch, facilitated survival for people in flightâwhether escaping persecution or just down on their luck.
What The Reviewers Say
[A] deeply personal project, one that probes the meaning of language and family, inheritance and debt.
...unusual, intriguing.
As a scholar in love with words and language, Puchner gives these priority, so his attention wanders, but the digressions are never less than intriguing. He cannot resist exploring the secret languages used by vagrants and criminals.
[Puchner] brilliantly integrates the personal and the professional in this intriguing account of his quest to learn as much as possible about Rotwelsch.
