Forest Books: Frances Itani Deafening P/B

This prize-winning novel is set in the years leading up to, an through, the First World War. Grania is Deaf. Jim is hearing. They fall in love exploring each other's hearts using sign and sound and silence. They marry but after only two weeks together Jim is sent to the horrors of the trenches. This is an exceptional novel, inspired by the author's Deaf grandmother, of love and war. It is also an ode to language; how it can console and imprison and liberate. Paperback 378 pages 2003