The highly acclaimed novel of a family whose love and courage enable them to survive in the silent world of the deaf. Joanne Greenbergis the author of numerous books, including I Never Promised You a Rose GardenandRites of Passage, a collection of stories. Abel and Janice Ryder begin their married life together with all the hopes and dreams of a young couple deeply in love. But before long they realize that their deafness stands as an immense barrier between them and a society that seems to work only for those who can hear. Inexperienced, ignorant, and bewildered, they leave the harsh environment of a school for the handicapped and enter the insensitive world of the hearing. Through years of debt and misunderstanding, hard and degrading work, the raising of a hearing daughter, common tragedies and joys, they learn that the remarkable tool of sign language enables them to survive and, indeed, to forge a love too powerful to be broken by the painful, extraordinary world into which they were born. In a story that spans four generations, we are witness to one family's struggle to carve a place for itself out of the tides of wealth, war, and human strivings that have swept America in this century. "Joanne Greenberg has taken the world of the deaf and made it an extension of everyone's experience--made it a metaphor for childish innocence, for grown-up alienation and loneliness .

and for the inability of all of us to truly listen and speak."--The New York Times "A haunting book . unforgettably vivid."--Library Journal.