As Sophia Smith Galer’s Nonna lay dying, Sophia realised it wasn’t just a grandmother she was losing, but a language. Nonna spoke a dialect of northern Italy that Sophia, like many children and grandchildren of migrants, understood but could not speak it.

Now the award-winning journalist and author as written How to Kill a Language as a result of her investigation into a hidden global crisis.

By the end of this century half of the world’s 7000 languages will have been killed by war, climate breakdown, migration, nationalism or neglect, and with them will go the knowledge they have sustained for centuries.

Sophia has travelled across continents and generations, her travels leading her back to where she began in Italy, to report from this disappearing world, and to send out a call to save the languages of our world before it is too late.

“An extremely moving, passionate plea.”

Cal Flynn