Many readers may know Polly Barton better as the translator behind Aoko Matsuda’s “Where the Wild Ladies Are,” which won an English PEN award last year; and Kikuko Tsumura’s “There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job,” released in November 2020. But if her latest individual work, “Fifty Sounds,” is anything to go by, Barton is a writer to be reckoned with in her own right.

Fifty Sounds: A Memoir of Language, Learning, and Longing, by Polly Barton360 pagesFITZCARRALDO EDITION

Published in April 2021 by Fitzcarraldo Editions, “Fifty Sounds: A Memoir of Language, Learning, and Longing” consists of 50 essays structured around Japanese onomatopoeia. It is, however, more than a memoir of her path to literary translation: It’s a vivid excavation of language and memory, a dizzying odyssey through the struggles of immersion and language learning, and a deeply humane love letter to a country that helped shape who she is today.