Deafening - Frances Itani

Grania O’Neill grows up in a world of silence, a world of separateness, of reading lips, of not belonging.

When she meets Jim Lloyd, a young hearing man mesmerized by her stillness and beauty, Grania’s life is transformed. Together, they explore their love through sign and sound and silence.

Married for only two weeks, the couple’s lives are torn apart when Jim is sent to the bloody battlefields of the First World War. As he descends into a hell of unforgiving noise, violence and death, their lives – and their love are stretched to the limits of endurance.

Peace and war, love and loss, hope and despair –

DEAFENING is a stunning, epic novel of stark contrasts, and a moving testament to the power of language.