The Quiet Ear

An Investigation of Missing Sound: A Memoir

De: Raymond Antrobus

A groundbreaking exploration of deafness by a young award-winning poet—a memoir, a cultural history, and a call to action

“Expansive, generous, and massively tender.”—Hanif Abdurraqib, author of There’s Always This Year

“Beautifully complicates and expands our understanding of what deafness is . . . a book that changed how I will move through the world.”—Clint Smith, author of How the Word Is Passed

I live with the aid of deafness. Like poetry, it has given me an art, a history, a culture and a tradition to live through. This book charts that art in the hopes of offering a map, a mirror, a small part of a larger story.

Raymond Antrobus was first diagnosed as deaf at the age of six. He discovered he had missing sounds—bird calls, whistles, kettles, alarms. Teachers thought he was slow and disruptive, some didn’t believe he was deaf at all.

The Quiet Ear tells the story of Antrobus’s upbringing at the intersection of race and disability. Growing up in East London to an English mother and Jamaican father, educated in both mainstream and deaf schooling systems, Antrobus explores the shame of miscommunication, the joy of finding community, and shines a light on deaf education.

Throughout, Antrobus sets his story alongside those of other D/deaf cultural figures—from painters to silent film stars, poets to performers—the inspiring models of D/deaf creativity he did not have growing up. A singular, remarkable work, The Quiet Ear is a much-needed examination of deafness in the world.

©2025 Raymond Antrobus (P)2025 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Raymond Antrobus is a brilliant and wise writer who makes the world seem more full of possibilities for connection and belonging. A journey through language, history and family, The Quiet Ear is a moving and expansive book about the long journey of finding a voice, and the joy and power of using it.”—Séan Hewitt, author of Open, Heaven

“In The Quiet Ear, Raymond Antrobus lifts up a defiant mirror to the mainstream world that has long ignored and shamed the d/Deaf communities and masterfully crafts a world we all deserve: one free of shame, one where deaf people are uplifted, empowered, no longer at the margins of society, but in the center, full of joy and thriving. The Quiet Ear is a must-read for all. Everyone needs this book.”—Javier Zamora, author of Solito

“The Quiet Ear is expansive, generous, and massively tender—a beautiful exploration of an interior life grappling with several magnitudes of loss, and what can be found within them.”—Hanif Abdurraqib, author of There’s Always This Year