Language is more than words we use to communicate with each other. Language helps us organize our reality, and shared language can create and reinforce shared perspectives and emotional experiences. Complicated, nuanced concepts can be described in single words rich with meaning, when people need this to happen–when their lives depend on it, or when they just want to share a laugh. If you’re interested in how language and culture and humanity and the natural world all interact (and especially if you’re also interested in the history of Ireland), I’m recommending Thirty-Two Words for Field: Lost Words of the Irish Landscape by Manchán Magan. Short, punchy, informative chapters reel easily from tragedy to comedy, as Magan contextualizes his family’s stories (and Ireland’s stories) in ways that will intrigue and enlighten any reader.
The 2026 paperback I am reading was published after Magan’s untimely death in 2025. (The book originally came out in 2020.) Magan was passionate about the Irish language that he grew up speaking, and you can easily find many online interviews and podcasts about his books and writings on this topic–as well as many other topics he wrote and posted about, like travel and indigeneity. His own page about the book, including many interviews, is here.
There is also a preview of the audiobook here if you’d like to hear some of the words pronounced (I definitely wanted this audio information). The narrator is his brother, a frequent collaborator on many projects.
Magan, Manchán. Thirty-Two Words for Field : Lost Words of the Irish Landscape. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2026.
