Sound
A Memoir of Hearing Lost and Found
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
“A moving and fascinating book about sound and what it means to be human” from the Somerset Maugham Award–winning author of The Lighthouse Stevensons (Financial Times).
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.
“Bathurst is a restless, curious writer . . . After reading this book, I found myself listening in a richer and more interested way.” —The 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 . . . terrifying, absorbing and ultimately uplifting.” —Literary Review
“Bathurst’s affecting memoir will enlighten and educate.” —Publishers Weekly
“A memoir of hearing loss and what the author learned . . . through her unexpected recovery from it. A good writer knows material when it presents itself, and Bathurst is a very good writer.” —Kirkus Reviews
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this fascinating memoir, British novelist Bathurst (Special) writes of losing and regaining her hearing over the course of 12 years beginning in 1998. At age 27, Bathurst began to realize she was losing her hearing, and she explains how, feeling embarrassed and ashamed, she tried to hide her hearing loss. For a while, her life was a struggle: telephone conversations became difficult, and participation in social interactions in noisy restaurants became impossible (the wrong dishes would come out and the strain exhausted her). In addition to telling her own story, Bathurst discusses well-known figures from history and how they dealt with the loss of their hearing, such as Ludwig van Beethoven, who, in his own words, "was soon compelled to withdraw myself, to live life alone." These tidbits occasionally interrupt her own story. Gradually, however, she accepted her condition and met others suffering from hearing loss. In 2009, Bathurst, seeing her regular audiologist, learned the real cause of her hearing loss was a condition called otosclerosis (as her hearing worsened, the doctor was able to pinpoint the reason); after surgery, her hearing was restored and "everything was bigger than I had the capacity to express." For those who struggle with hearing loss, Bathurst's affecting memoir will enlighten and educate.
