Didi O’Connor must escape South Boston where her Dad scoffs, “How did you get so fat on your Ma’s shitty cooking?” She seizes her chance when she gets “a free ride” to a prestigious college in Upstate New York. But when her advisor forces Didi to change her name, accent, clothes—even her religion—will success destroy her more than her dead-end home-life ever would? In the Shadow of His Language explores the costs of class-jumping and the imperialism we call “education.”