Susan Samata has written a book that is interesting and accessible to both the specialist and the more interested and informed general reader. Delivered in a style that is highly engaging, as well as thought provoking, The cultural memory of language offers a fascinating insight into the experience of people who do not share the first language of their parents (PL1). Samata takes the reader on a journey that combines academic insight with a personal connection to the project. That current of personalisation, which recurs throughout the research, is a refreshing perspective that brings to life what could otherwise have been quite a dry piece of scholarship. The book's format is a standard five-part structure: introduction, literature review, methods, findings, and the discussion and conclusions; the literature review is split into two chapters: ‘Exploring the background’ and ‘A category marked miscellaneous’.

The book's introduction makes it clear that the location of its investigation in the experience of people who do not share their PL1 is one that is primarily concerned with the identified individuals’ personal experience. From the beginning it is clear that the journeys we will read about are personal, often intimate, encounters with wider cultural memory.

Dividing the literature review into two chapters works well. The content of the second chapter fulfils the standard role of the literature review, locating the book's central topic in a familiar context of research and theory pertinent to language acquisition. In the third chapter the literature concerned with the cultural contexts in which language acquisition occurs is considered; this enables the reader to develop a richer understanding of the experience of people who do not share the first language of their parents. Samata's discussion of the connection between cultural memory and linguistics is articulated clearly, providing a robust rationale for her project.

The third chapter grounds the work in a strong personal narrative, which is shown to be the main motivation for the researcher to have undertaken her study: a narrative that acts as the heartbeat of the book, and runs, at varying levels of intensity, through every chapter. Though that personal trajectory is of great importance in understanding her project, the chapter also succeeds in demonstrating that applied linguistics research is truly multi-disciplinary. By discussing the book's aims and objectives through a reflection of its core motif in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and, to use the author's expression, the philosophic imagination, the writer develops a rich picture of what it means to be estranged from the first language of ones parents.

Methodologically, the research uses an adaptation of Jürgen Straub's ‘horizons of comparison’ approach (Understanding cultural differences: Relational hermeneutics and comparative analysis in cultural psychology. In Straub, Weidemann, Carlos, Kölbl, & Zielke (eds.), Pursuit of meaning: Advances in cultural and cross-cultural psychology, 163–213. Bielefeld: Transcript, 2006). Within the interview analysis this requires a detailed reading and rereading of, and reflection on, the interview transcriptions. Whilst the interview transcriptions themselves suggest there is only a basic level of coding, the subsequent discussion is illuminated well through the researcher's personal reflections and commentary, which give the persona of her research participants real depth. The process highlights several emergent themes (inauthenticity/imposture, ambivalence, blame/resentment, change over time, and feelings of participation); these are discussed with the differences and points of commonality highlighted. What brings the interviews to life, however, are the numerous personal observations of the interviewees that Samata also incorporates into her analysis. Her conclusions, whilst recognised as being based on too small a sample for too much generalisation, suggest that the significance of considering the personal impact that not sharing PL1 has on the individual is one that warrants substantial further investigation.

What this book does well is its humanising of applied linguistics through embracing it as a multi-disciplinary field that focuses on the whole person. It is written in a style that informs the specialist, as well as the intelligent general reader, and provides a highly useful addition to an under-researched area.