"Years later, I learned an English word for the creature that Assef was, a word for which a good Farsi equivalent does not exist: 'sociopath.'" pg. 38
Hmm, usually I hear it the other way around. Like oh, there just isn't a good English equivalent for this word. We've even adopted words like zeitgeist and schadenfreude and doppelganger from German because in English we have to use entire phrases like "the general thoughts and feelings of the time", "taking pleasure in one's pain", and "someone who roams the world who looks exactly like you." I really think schadenfreude should have it's own English equivalent. You can make it up. Submit it to Websters. Either way, I'm glad to learn English has one-upped Farsi. Maybe because they didn't have the word for it, that's why nobody did anything about Assef when he ran around raping children...Bazinga!
On a fun note, here's a whole song about schadenfreude from Avenue Q. It's very questionable as far as language and themes go, but hey, I'm reading a book about child rape for class, so we can't get too nitpicky can we?
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