{"product_id":"mother-tongue-a-memoir","title":"Mother Tongue: A Memoir","description":"\n\u003ctable align=\"center\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd class=\"productDetailSmallElements\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"In this enraging history and big-hearted family saga, Sara Novic has skillfully subverted the dividing lines of identity, her deafness becoming the thread that connects us all. \n\u003ci\u003eMother Tongue\u003c\/i\u003e is a moral force, and a salve.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Sierra Crane Murdoch, author of \u003ci\u003eYellow Bird\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\" \n\u003ci\u003eMother Tongue \u003c\/i\u003eis 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 Novic's work--brimming with equal parts rage and hope.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Andrew Leland, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Country of the Blind\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\" \n\u003ci\u003eMother Tongue \u003c\/i\u003eis 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.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Nicole Chung, author of \u003ci\u003eA Living Remedy\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"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.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Greg Marshall, author of \u003ci\u003eLeg\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"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. Novic gets to the heart of humanness without making loss, grief, or difference a disadvantage. . . . A miracle of a book.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Porochista Khakpour, author of \u003ci\u003eSick\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\" \n\u003ci\u003eMother Tongue\u003c\/i\u003e dismantles everyday ableism with precision, tracing Novic'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.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Esmé Weijun Wang, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Collected Schizophrenias\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"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.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Thomas Fuller, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Boys of Riverside\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"Lucid and rigorously researched, Novic's memoir offers a powerful critique of the systems that have marginalized deaf Americans across the decades. It's a sobering must-read.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, starred review\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A powerful and poignant account of learning to cherish differences . . . For anyone who has felt the need to hide their true self, who has struggled with the demands of parenting or found themselves underestimated, Mother Tongue looks at loss and adversity and what makes moving forward possible.\" \n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--Booklist, starred review\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"This beautiful memoir about how it feels to be different belongs in every public library collection. Novic argues that access and language should be thoughtful and intentional and that no one should be relegated to the margins.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal, \u003c\/i\u003estarred review\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Novic is an expert at threading storytelling with research. Readers will come away from this exceptional memoir with not only a sense of Novic's expe­rience, but a deeper understanding of Deaf cul­ture as a whole.\" \n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--BookPage\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReading Line\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNew York Times bestselling author of True Biz\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBiographical Note\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eSara Novic \u003c\/b\u003eis the author of the \n\u003ci\u003e New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller \n\u003ci\u003eTrue Biz\u003c\/i\u003e and \n\u003ci\u003eGirl at War, \u003c\/i\u003eboth of which won the American Library Association's Alex Award. She is an activist and an instructor of deaf studies and creative writing, and lives in Pennsylvania with her family.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher Marketing\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eThe \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eTrue Biz\u003c\/i\u003e retraces her path out of the hearing world and into the deaf community--and seeks to understand what it means to raise children who are different from her--in this emotionally rich memoir. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"In this enraging history and big-hearted family saga, Sara Novic has skillfully subverted the dividing lines of identity, her deafness becoming the thread that connects us all.\"--Sierra Crane Murdoch, author of \u003ci\u003eYellow Bird\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSara Novic's early years were steeped in 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. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eEventually unable to ignore the fact that she was deaf, Novic sought out other deaf people and was welcomed into a tight knit community rooted in the beauty and joy of American Sign Language. Novic realized that rather than maintaining the facade of her old life or trying to straddle two worlds, she would need to cultivate an existence in the space between. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eNow the mother of two young sons--one, biological and hearing, the other, adopted and deaf--Novic 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. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eInterwoven 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. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eNovic'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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations:\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eBooklist\u003c\/span\u003e 04\/01\/2026 (EAN 9780593241530, Hardcover) - *Starred Review\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/span\u003e 03\/02\/2026 (EAN 9780593241530, Hardcover) - *Starred Review\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/span\u003e 04\/01\/2026 pg. 76 (EAN 9780593241530, Hardcover) - *Starred Review\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/span\u003e 12\/30\/0001 (EAN 9780593241530, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/span\u003e 06\/15\/2026 (EAN 9780593241530, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n","brand":"Random House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51496103870742,"sku":"9780593241530","price":34.8,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0857\/9910\/8886\/files\/9780593241530.jpg?v=1783053228","url":"https:\/\/lusper.myshopify.com\/products\/mother-tongue-a-memoir","provider":"Lusperbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}