The Quiet Ear
An Investigation of Missing Sound: A Memoir
-
- $13.99
Publisher Description
A groundbreaking exploration of deafness by a young award-winning poet—a memoir, a cultural history, and a call to action hailed as “insightful, bighearted [and] a transformative story for all readers” (The New York Times Book Review)
“Beautifully complicates and expands our understanding of what deafness is . . . a book that changed how I will move through the world.”—Clint Smith, author of How the Word Is Passed
“A litany to beauty beyond what is spoken. This book is an essential education.”—Safiya Sinclair, author of How to Say Babylon
“A spellbinding account of [Antrobus's] youth as a deaf, mixed-race child in East London . . . an unforgettable account of finding one’s voice. It’s masterful.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
A TIME AND SHELF AWARENESS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • One of Publishers Weekly’s Top 10 New Memoirs and Biographies of the Fall • One of The Washington Post and Vulture’s Most Anticipated Books
I live with the aid of deafness. Like poetry, it has given me an art, a history, a culture and a tradition to live through. This book charts that art in the hopes of offering a map, a mirror, a small part of a larger story.
Raymond Antrobus was first diagnosed as deaf at the age of six. He discovered he had missing sounds—bird calls, whistles, kettles, alarms. Teachers thought he was slow and disruptive, some didn’t believe he was deaf at all.
The Quiet Ear tells the story of Antrobus’s upbringing at the intersection of race and disability. Growing up in East London to an English mother and Jamaican father, educated in both mainstream and deaf schooling systems, Antrobus explores the shame of miscommunication, the joy of finding community, and shines a light on deaf education.
Throughout, Antrobus sets his story alongside those of other D/deaf cultural figures—from painters to silent film stars, poets to performers—the inspiring models of D/deaf creativity he did not have growing up. A singular, remarkable work, The Quiet Ear is a much-needed examination of deafness in the world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Poet Antrobus (Signs, Music) delivers a spellbinding account of his youth as a deaf, mixed-race child in East London. Diagnosed deaf at seven years old, Antrobus struggled socially and academically. He felt alienated from his peers, family, and even other deaf individuals who considered him strange for not signing as well as they could. Shame "seemed to follow me everywhere," Antrobus writes: "If I wear both hearing aids I look disabled not desirable, if I take too long to answer questions I'm failing, the girl will reject me, the public will pity me, they will act awkward, assume me slow." Antrobus's mixed English and Jamaican ancestry made him even more of an outsider. In one particularly heartbreaking passage about the bullying he endured, he admits to "play into whatever perception kept me safest; black, white, whatever they wanted to see." Through it all, poetry provided salvation, convincing Antrobus of the power in "finding ways to articulate your unique self in the world." With lyrical prose, bruising candor, and remarkable tenderness toward his wounded younger self, Antrobus provides an unforgettable account of finding one's voice. It's masterful.
