Mother Tongue, by Hilda Hoy

Hilda Hoy's meditation on language, culture, and identity, in paperback and EPUB.

• £8.00
• 72pp
• Published 17th February 2026

Happy Lunar New Year! Before February 17th, you can preorder the paperback for £6.50, using the code MOTHERTONGUE at the checkout!

“When I speak Chinese with my mother, I am reminded of the distance that separates us—of my foreignness from the person who made me.”

In Mother Tongue, Hilda Hoy explores the manifold capacities of language: to shape one’s sense of self, to bring together, to hold apart.

Raised in Taiwan by her Taiwanese mother and Canadian father, bilingual from the start, Hoy lays bare her experience of growing up with otherness and traces how English became her dominant tongue. After many years living in Canada and Europe, her “Chinese-speaking self packed into a box and sealed shut,” the repercussions of the loss of her Mandarin are thrown into sharp focus when her mother is diagnosed with dementia, and begins losing the ability to speak.

A tender exploration of grief and reconnection, of belonging and self, Mother Tongue is the story of a journey to locate one’s voice, between hybrid places.