This fascinating book is concerned with the interaction between language and cognition. It starts by questioning the invisibility of bilingual participants in research in this field. The following opening question invites readers to delve into this masterpiece: ‘If languages influence the way we think, do bilinguals think differently in their respective languages?’ (p. i). Strikingly, Pavlenko suggests that the book title is a misnomer, saying that there is no such thing as the bilingual mind since bilinguals vary greatly in linguistic repertoires, histories and abilities. To start the discussion, the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (SWH) is introduced by questioning how likely it is that Humboldt, Sapir and Whorf believed that language determines thought. The reasons why bilingualism played no role in discussions of language and thought until recently are exemplified, and Pavlenko mentions the sociopolitical circumstances that led to monolinguals being privileged over bilinguals and multilinguals. Next to be addressed is the bilingual turn in the study of language and cognition, which was possible once scholars realized that bilinguals constitute ‘an exceptionally favorable ground for testing the Whorfian Hypothesis’ (p. 18). It is asserted that the bilingual turn in academia is a natural consequence of globalization, transnational migration and increased ethnolinguistic diversity in the Western World. Several methodological approaches to the study of linguistic categorization and their effects on cognition are discussed, exemplifying how the world is presented in a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions which have to be organized by the language systems in our minds, and how the process of categorical perception is shaped by our ages, histories or physical states. The author questions ‘what do we see when we see the world around us, given that our vision relies on the same neurobiological mechanisms? (p. 40)’ She then presents colors as one of the most enigmatic dimensions of the material world; the concepts number, time and space, as linguistic systems of symbolic relationships are discussed, in order to examine how humans make a transition from concrete to abstract categories. The relationship between language and motion events for monolinguals and bilinguals is also discussed, including studies on motion categorization and event construals.

The discussion then turns to an examination of narrative worlds—constituted by the retelling of stories of our own lives—and delves into ways in which language mediates autobiographical memory in speakers of two or more languages. Such discursive worlds, then, represent linguistic thought or inner speech and the relationship between bilingualism and cognition. The author questions what people actually mean when they say they ‘think in a language’ (p.207). Later on, there is reference to the interaction between languages and emotions in the bi- and multi-lingual mind, looking at what emotions are and do. At the end, the author refuses to take a stand on the validity of SWH and disagrees with the narrow and binary terms of engagements presented by other authors. It is suggested that the time is ripe for linguists to abandon the SWH ‘as we know it’ and to focus on thought—insofar as it is linguistic—in the mind that is embodied, heteroglossic, and situated in context. This is, therefore, a must-read book, accessible to both the novice and more seasoned scholar who is interested in what language makes for thought.