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Mother Tongue

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What to expect

In this emotionally rich first memoir, the New York Times bestselling author of True Biz retraces her path out of the hearing world and into the deaf community - and seeks to understand the journeys her own children must take.

'A book I want to press into everyone's hands... refuses to let us look away from how we fail disabled people - and shows us how we can do better' Esmé Weijun Wang

Sara Nović's early years were filled with music, Bible study, and a strong desire to fit in. But when she failed her school's mandated hearing test, her worldview was thrown into chaos. Desperate not to be marked as different, she told no one, staying in the hearing world for as long as she could by brute force.

Eventually unable to ignore the fact that she was deaf, Nović sought out other deaf people and was welcomed into a tight-knit community rooted in the beauty and joy of American Sign Language. Nović realized that rather than maintaining the facade of her old life or trying to straddle two worlds, she would need to cultivate a life in the space between.

Now the mother of two young sons - one, biological and hearing, the other, adopted and deaf-Nović reflects on her life both before and after parenthood. She's raising her children within the deaf world, offering them things her younger self needed, all the while knowing that as her children grow, their own paths will branch off from hers in ways she cannot fully predict or plan for.

Interwoven with Novic's personal story is a remarkable portrait of America through reflections on some of its most complex histories: the rise of the Christian right, the thorny world of international adoption, and above all, the deaf and disabled communities' stubborn survival in the face of persistent oppression.

Nović's clear, bold voice is one readers will hold onto, learn from, argue with, and be inspired by, as she asks us to recognize difference as a source of opportunity rather than fear, as a chance to draw families and communities together, and to build something new.

Critics Review

Sara Nović's Mother Tongue is a book I want to press into everyone's hands - disabled or not. This meticulously researched exploration of d/Deaf culture and history dismantles everyday ableism with precision, tracing Nović's journey from isolation to disability activism. It's a book that refuses to let us look away from how we fail disabled people - and shows us how we can do better
Esmé Weijun Wang, author of The Collected Schizophrenias
Sara Novic's Mother Tongue is an unruly, defiant, and breathtaking history of becoming. You could say it's about becoming deaf and becoming a parent, but it's also about how ordinary people dismantle oppression one word, one sign, one bold act of love at a time. I can't think of a more urgent book to read as a new parent
Greg Marshall, author of Leg
Mother Tongue is an essential book for anyone seeking to understand the deaf world today. A stirring personal tale of coming of age as a deaf woman in America, woven through with a sweeping portrait of deaf history and culture, it resonates with an impassioned call to action, an appeal to decency and equality for people of all abilities and disabilities
Thomas Fuller, author of The Boys of Riverside
Funny, intimate, honest, and deeply moving. At the same time, it's full of rich historical detail, dazzling critical inquiry, and political fury. I finished it - as I do all of Nović's work- brimming with equal parts rage and hope
Andrew Leland, author of The Country of the Blind
This is not just a tremendous entry into the world of disability literature, it is a poignant tale of parenthood that should be mandatory reading for everyone. Nović gets to the heart of humanness without making loss, grief, or difference a disadvantage... A miracle of a book
Porochista Khakpour, author of Sick
In this enraging history and big-hearted family saga, Sara Nović has skillfully subverted the dividing lines of identity, her deafness becoming the thread that connects us all
Sierra Crane Murdoch, author of Yellow Bird
One of the most powerful memoirs I have read in years, a book I defy anyone to read without being challenged or changed. . . . A revelation and a reckoning
Nicole Chung, author of A Living Remedy
Author Sara Novic
Narrator Lisa Flanagan
Duration 7 hours and 35 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781405552639
Format Audiobook
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Genre Children’s health, Early years: family, Relationships and families: advice and issues, Sociology: family and relationships
Availability AU, GB, IE

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