"Bathurst is a restless, curious writer… After reading this book, I found myself listening in a richer and more interested way." — Guardian
A profound, beautifully written exploration of sound by a young woman who lost her hearing, then regained it.
In this surprising and moving book, award-winning writer Bella Bathurst shares the extraordinary true story of how she lost her hearing and eventually regained it and what she learned from her twelve years of deafness. Diving into a wide-ranging exploration of silence and noise, she interviews psychologists, ear surgeons, and professors to uncover fascinating insights about the science of sound. But she also speaks with ordinary people who are deaf or have lost their hearing, including musicians, war veterans, and factory workers, to offer a perceptive, thought-provoking look at what sound means to us.
If sight gives us the world, then hearing-or our ability to listen-gives us our connections with other people. But, as this smart, funny, and profoundly honest examination reveals, our relationship with sound is both more personal and far more complex than we might expect.
Industry Reviews
"Bathurst is a restless, curious writer... After reading this book, I found myself listening in a richer and more interested way." -- Guardian
"A hymn to the faculty of hearing by someone who had it, lost it and then found it again, written with passion and intelligence ... a brave and important work ... terrifying, absorbing and ultimately uplifting." -- Literary Review
"Less a memoir than an investigation of the importance of sound in human life ... a moving and fascinating book, all about sound and what it means to be human. It has its share of sound and fury, and benefits from a journalist's ability to listen." -- Financial Times For The Lighthouse Stevensons
"Bathurst's elegantly written saga is bursting with life, laced with romantic dreams... Even readers with no special interest in the sea or Scotland will be swept up in Bathurst's narrative... Her exuberant family drama is an enchantment."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Stunning...It's hard to imagine many writers who could make civil engineering thrilling, but that's what Bathurst does."--San Francisco Chronicle
"Bathurst... [writes] with an enchanting eloquence."--New York Times Book Review"
For Special
"As 'special' as its title, this stunningly observed, wickedly funny, and ultimately tragic first novel is hightly recommended."--Library Journal (Starred)
"As fiction, utterly devastating, as psychology, grim and apocalyptic: a ripped-bare portrait of the evil that children can do."--Kirkus Reviews
"Dazzlingly written, blistering with feeling"--Boston Globe
