In-Store: Sara Nović presents Mother Tongue

Event guidelines:

• ASL interpreters will be present at this event.
• Each ticket will include either a copy of the featured book or a $10 Books Are Magic gift card. Additional copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event.
• A signing will follow the talk.
• Home address is collected for contact tracing purposes; it will not be used otherwise.
• The event will also be livestreamed for free here: https://youtube.com/live/KbHJLEksthE
• As a reminder: If you are not feeling well, please do not come to the event, even if you have a ticket; email us and we'll work it out.

If you have any questions regarding these guidelines or to request accessibility accommodations, please contact [email protected].

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 what it means to raise children who are different from her—in this emotionally rich memoir.

Sara Nović’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.

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 an existence 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 Nović'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.

Sara Nović is the author of the New York Times bestseller True Biz and Girl at War, both 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.

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