Languages ​​have been endowed with extraordinary powers: they produce words that can name the world. But sometimes it seems that some languages ​​do it better than others. Is mine perhaps inadequate? And what is happening today with English and its global success? In this book, co-written with Mariana Dimópulos, J. M. Coetzee engages in dialogue about present and future issues that affect our ideas about languages ​​and our uses of this primarily human tool. The starting point is the Spanish translation of The Pole, the translation problems raised by this novel, and its author's premise of publishing his writings first in Spanish and then in the original English. But this gesture of Coetzee's, when explored, reveals itself as the trigger for questions about our relationship with language, the mystery of words, the problems of gender, and the intricate ways in which languages ​​condition us and allow us to speak, write, and think. “It’s thrilling to access the dialogue between J. M. Coetzee and Mariana Dimópulos, whose fascinating exchange of ideas touches on every aspect of translation, as it has shaped their lives and their art. *The Gift of Tongues* is an intelligent, moving, and profoundly human critique that reveals how difficult and wonderful it can be to inhabit a language that is not one’s own.” —Merve Emre, contributing writer, *The New Yorker*. “The kind of book that comes along once in a lifetime, *The Gift of Tongues* is an extraordinary combination of artistry and scholarship that will transform your ideas about language, translation, identity, and possibly the universe.” —Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize winner.