Abstract

Set during the summer season on Santorini, In Different Tongues chronicles the fate of one woman, one dog. Upon the death of her aunt Astrid, Kate, alone and confused, travels to Greece to join her boyfriend Thom. Soon after Kate arrives in the main town of Thira, her life begins to erode: her relationship with Thom meets an abrupt end; her subsequent affair with a French marine biologist is cut short when a lost whale is spotted in the port two islands away. At the heart of the novel is Kate's failing trust in words, her memories of her mother's voice box, and her unspoken bond with the stray dog Kyno. When Kyno's body is discovered in a dumpster on the outskirts of town, Kate can no longer stifle the changes which have been taking place: as language withers, Kate gives up the rush of memory, the human race.