Ilan Stavan was born in Mexico City to a Jewish family that had emigrated to Mexic in the 1920s. Thus his first language is New World Spanish. His second, thanks to his ethnic heritage, was Yiddish, and as young man he learned Hebrew and English as well. You will not be surprised to learn that his English can be a bit rocky here and there, even though he now teaches in the USA in the field of Latin American studies. Unfortunately, some of the rockiness extends to errors of fact that should have been caught by his editor.

At one point, for example, he states that the oldest forms of English are Welsh and Gaelic. Er, no.

The trouble with errors of detail in a non-fiction book is, of course, that they make the reader distrust statements on subjects about which she knows little or nothing. Stavan interviews various experts on the history of the Hebrew revival in Israel. I have to assume that his quotes are accurate, because I bought this book for the simple reason that I know nothing about the subject. Doubtless the author knows more about it than I do. Still, I've been left with the feeling that I should engage in more research just to confirm his views and facts.