The Language of Thieves: The Story of Rotwelsch and One Family's Secret History

‘A book about history, language and culture wrapped up in a detective story […] Fascinating’ - Guardian recommended by Michael Rosen "The story of the secret language of Central Europe and its legacy on the author's hidden family history, from the author of The Written World. Since the Middle Ages, vagrants and thieves in Central Europe have spoken Rotwelsch, a secret language influenced by Yiddish and written in rudimentary signs. When Martin Puchner inherited a family archive, it led him on a journey into this extraordinary language but also into his family's connections to the Party, for whom Rotwelsch held a particular significance. A riveting story of the mindset and milieu of Central Europe and of the way language can be used to evade oppression, The Language of Thieves is also a deeply moving reckoning with a family's buried past."