American cultural critic Thomas Chatterton Williams is deeply in love with his French wife, Valentine. Accustomed to exquisite command over the English language, Thomas loses agency over his life when he and Valentine move to Paris. And when they welcome their first child, Marlow, for the first time in his life he finds he can't disclose himself — not fully — to a person he loves through language. When words fail, it's his six-year-old daughter who builds the bridge to her father and helps expand his own sense of self — in language, in life, and in love.

Thomas Chatterton Williams's latest book is Self-Portrait in Black and White: Unlearning Race.

Follow him on Twitter at @thomaschattwill

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