The Language Lover’s Puzzle Book: Lexical perplexities and cracking conundrums from across the globe - Softcover

Bellos, Alex

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1783352191 ISBN 13: 9781783352197

Publisher: Guardian Faber Publishing, 2021

Synopsis

From the bestselling author of Alex's Adventures in Numberland and Can You Solve My Problems? comes a fascinating, hugely entertaining collection of puzzles for crossword addicts and language-lovers of all stripes.

‘The only puzzle book I’ve seen that manages to befuddle both sides of the brain at the same time.’
DARA Ó BRIAIN

‘Such fun, full of unexpected ideas and charmingly written.’
TIM HARFORD

The Language Lover's Puzzle Book is a book of more than 100 surprising and entertaining puzzles that celebrate the amazing diversity of the world of words and language.

Featuring a huge variety of ancient, modern and even invented languages, this collection of problems will introduce you to unusual alphabets and scripts, curious vocabularies and phonologies, and global variations in simple behaviours like counting, telling the time, and naming children.

Whether you are a crossword solver, a code-breaker or a Scrabble addict, these puzzles are guaranteed to twist your tongue and sharpen your mind.

'Alex Bellos is a dazzling polymath whose cleverness and ingenuity are on full display in this utterly brilliant and original collection of linguistic puzzles. This book is destined to be a classic for puzzle lovers.'
JOSHUA FOER, co-founder of Atlas Obscura and author Moonwalking with Einstein

'An irresistible linguistic workout ― challenging and deeply satisfying.'
GASTON DORREN, author of Lingo and Babel

'For all the language and puzzle fans in your life!' GRETCHEN McCULLOCH
'A cornucopia of ingenious and insightful challenges.' DAVID CRYSTAL
'This compendium of puzzles is a great idea.' MICHAEL ROSEN
'You'll love what Alex Bellos has done here.' GYLES BRANDRETH
'Tantalisting.' THE ECONOMIST
'The perfect way to pass the time.' BBC SCIENCE FOCUS

About this title

About the Author

Alex Bellos is a grandmaster of the puzzling world, brilliant on all things cryptic. His bestselling, award-winning books include Alex’s Adventures in Numberland, Alex Through the Looking-Glass and Can You Solve My Problems?, and have been translated into more than twenty languages. He is also the coauthor of two mathematical colouring books and the children’s series Football School. His YouTube videos have been seen by more than twenty million people, and he writes a popular puzzle blog for the Guardian. @alexbellos

From the Back Cover

Can you decipher the code of a long-lost civilization? Or solve riddles in runes? Or will you get lost in translation?

Crossing continents and borders, bestselling puzzle author Alex Bellos has gathered more than one hundred of the world's best conundrums that celebrate the rich diversity of human language and culture, all while testing your deduction, intuition and street smarts.

Edition details

• Publisher: Guardian Faber Publishing
• Publication date: 2021
• ISBN 10: 1783352191
• ISBN 13: 9781783352197
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 416