In This Sign

By: Joanne Greenberg, Sara Novic - introduction

Length: 8 hrs

Publisher's summary

The bestselling modern classic by the author of I Never Promised You a Rose Garden about a deaf couple, their hearing child, and the bond they create through sign language, featuring a new introduction by Sara Nović, author of the New York Times bestseller True Biz, and a new afterword by the author

“Astute and wholly authentic . . . This novel isn’t only one of deaf hardship, but also one of bravery and great joy. . . . Over the course of it, I was often as gripped . . . as I am while reading a thriller.” —Sara Nović, from the Introduction

A Penguin Classic

Abel and Janice meet at a school for the deaf. Sign language brings them together, enabling them to survive and, indeed, to forge a love too powerful to be broken by the world into which they were born. Spanning forty years, from the late 1920s to the early 1960s, In This Sign follows the lives of Abel, Janice, and their hearing daughter, Margaret, as they contend uneasily with the “Outside”—a world designed, often purposely, to be inhospitable to those like them.

First published in 1970, only a decade after ASL's formal recognition as a language and well before the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, In This Sign stands out as a rare, compassionate portrait of the deaf community.

©2024 Joanne Greenberg (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“From its first pages, it’s clear how effective Greenberg is at capturing the nuances of deaf culture. . . . Greenberg’s novel is nuanced in its portrayal of deaf people compared to the general understanding at the time. . . . Impressively, Greenberg is also leagues ahead of her contemporaries; deaf characters of note immediately before and after the publication of In This Sign are almost laughably one-dimensional in comparison . . . with even talented writers seeming either incurious about dismantling deaf-related clichés or bolstered by the rhetoric of saviorism to speak over the deaf in problematic ways. . . . Greenberg make[s] the minutiae of our daily lives feel . . . monumental.” —Sara Nović, from the Introduction

“A miracle of empathy.” —The New York Times

“A haunting book . . . unforgettably vivid.” —Library Journal