| View Larger Image | The Unheard: A Memoir of Deafness and Africa | Paperbackby Josh Swiller (Author)
| List Price: | $14.00 | | Price: | $9.89 | | You Save: | $4.11 (29%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Holt Paperbacks | | Page Count: | 288 Pages | | Publication Date: | September 04, 2007 | | Sales Rank: | 234,647th |
|
FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9780805082104
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
- Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
|
EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
A young man’s quest to reconcile his deafness in an unforgiving world leads to a remarkable sojourn in a remote African village that pulsates with beauty and violence These are hearing aids. They take the sounds of the world and amplify them.” Josh Swiller recited this speech to himself on the day he arrived in Mununga, a dusty village on the shores of Lake Mweru. Deaf since a young age, Swiller spent his formative years in frustrated limbo on the sidelines of the hearing world, encouraged by his family to use lipreading and the strident approximations of hearing aids to blend in. It didn’t work. So he decided to ditch the well-trodden path after college, setting out to find a place so far removed that his deafness would become irrelevant.That place turned out to be Zambia, where Swiller worked as a Peace Corps volunteer for two years. There he would encounter a world where violence, disease, and poverty were the mundane facts of life. But despite the culture shock, Swiller finally commanded attention—everyone always listened carefully to the white man, even if they didn’t always follow his instruction. Spending his days working in the health clinic with Augustine Jere, a chubby, world-weary chess aficionado and a steadfast friend, Swiller had finally found, he believed, a place where his deafness didn’t interfere, a place he could call home. Until, that is, a nightmarish incident blasted away his newfound convictions.At once a poignant account of friendship through adversity, a hilarious comedy of errors, and a gripping narrative of escalating violence, The Unheard is an unforgettable story from a noteworthy new talent. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 48 reviews)
|
Average by Bernard Tamer (Dubai)  3 Stars
October 12, 2009
I am still reading this book and did not finish. but so far, nothing compelling to capture your heart and mind. IT really fell below expectations. The topic is unique and the book could have been much much stronger.
| |
Compelling memoir, fresh new voice by D. Chaudoir (Michigan and Arkansas, USA)  5 Stars
September 29, 2009
The Unheard by Josh Swiller (Holt Paperbacks, 2007), is a memoir about Swiller's deafness and how it impacts his tour as a Peace Corps volunteer in Zambia, a republic in southern Africa just north of Zimbabwe. I read it last December and it still sticks with me!
Swiller takes what could be a very maudlin story (a deaf guy in Africa... OK, so what?, you might think) and weaves it into a heartfelt and compelling narrative about the challenges of being an outsider in a very political village in northern Zambia. You'll also enjoy learning about the inner workings of the Peace Corps.
What's great about this story is that Swiller's deafness is by all means not the greatest of his challenges in Africa. The simple rudiments of everyday life in a foreign context are brought into sharp relief in a unique and thought-provoking way. And to top it all off, Josh Swiller happens to be an excellent storyteller... I couldn't put the book down. Although there are times of frustration, and I don't necessarily agree with Swiller's level of involvement in some of the political battles of his village (which are nonetheless the kind of ethical issues that anthropologists like myself face all the time), you'll find this is a terrific read that hopefully will give you pause to think during the hectic pace of our everyday lives.
| |
Loved it! by D. Sindell (Europe) 5 Stars
June 22, 2009
I loved The Unheard! We read it for my book club and it was the highest rated book in the past 2 years. Definitely a must! Gives you a greater empathy for both people with hearing loss and for the situation in Africa.
| |
Bold, inspirational and heartbreaking- a masterpiece!! by Sophie Banks (New York, NY USA) 5 Stars
August 08, 2008
This is the first time that I felt compelled to write a review. I found this book honest, entertaining, soul searching and amazing. Josh really lets you see who he is and doesn't hide his emotions or short comings. He provides insights into coping with his deafness and also reveals how he experiences that world. His journey in Africa is unbelievable except, of course, it is true. I would highly recommend this book.
| |
A Mother's Nightmare by PC Mom (New Jersey) 5 Stars
June 30, 2008
I found Josh Swiller's riveting and beautifully written account of his Peace Corps service in Eastern Africa impossible to put down. Swiller weaves insight about deafness brilliantly into his story, giving the reader an insider's perspective on being deaf in any and every possible situation. As the mother of a present Peace Corps Volunteer, I couldn't help but imagine how Josh's mother might have been feeling during his two years in Africa. What did she know about his experience? Was she able to communicate with him? Did he protect her by not divulging details of the danger? While he doesn't tell the reader much about his mother in his book, I found myself wondering about her beyond the book. And...I have continued to think deeply about his experience long after reading his final words. I'm ready to read whatever Swiller publishes next!
| |
SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
| Rebuilt: My Journey Back to the Hearing World
by Michael Chorost (Author)
After Michael Chorost suddenly lost what was left of his hearing, he took the radical step of having a cochlear implant -- a tiny computer -- installed in his head. A technological marvel, the device not only restored to him the world of sound but also could be routinely upgraded with new software. Despite his intitial fear of the technology's potentially dehumanizing effects, Chorost's implant allowed him to connect with others in surprising ways: as a cyborg, he learned about love, joined a...
| 
| Talking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals About the Mind
by Margalit Fox (Author)
Imagine a village where everyone "speaks" sign language. Just such a village -- an isolated Bedouin community in Israel with an unusually high rate of deafness -- is at the heart of Talking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals About the Mind. There, an indigenous sign language has sprung up, used by deaf and hearing villagers alike. It is a language no outsider has been able to decode, until now.A New York Times reporter trained as a linguist, Margalit Fox is the only Western journalist to have...
| 
| Open Your Eyes: Deaf Studies Talking
by H-Dirksen L. Bauman (Editor)
This groundbreaking volume introduces readers to the key concepts and debates in deaf studies, offering perspectives on the relevance and richness of deaf ways of being in the world. In Open Your Eyes, leading and emerging scholars, the majority of whom are deaf, consider physical and cultural boundaries of deaf places and probe the complex intersections of deaf identities with gender, sexuality, disability, family, and race. Together, they...
| 
| A Yellow Raft in Blue Water: A Novel
by Michael Dorris (Author)
Michael Dorris has crafted a fierce saga of three generations of Indian women, beset by hardships and torn by angry secrets, yet inextricably joined by the bonds of kinship. Starting in the present day and moving backward, the novel is told in the voices of the three women: fifteen-year-old part-black Rayona; her American Indian mother, Christine, consumed by tenderness and resentment toward those she loves; and the fierce and mysterious Ida, mother and grandmother whose haunting secrets,...
| 
| Bitterness (An African Novel from Zambia)
by Malama Katulwende (Author)
This is one of the most realistic and passionate contemporary novels about the life of young people in today's Africa, written by Malama Katulwende, a young Zambian poet and intellectual. It describes the seeming incompatibility of old African traditions and modern life, depicts the political struggle of Zambia's students, and the hope and despair of the book's main character, his family, lover, and friends. Based on real events, this novel provides an insight into African history, daily...
|
|
|
