Paperback, 320 pages, W128mm x H195mm
Desmond Bates is a recently retired linguistics professor vexed by his
encroaching deafness and at loose ends in his personal life. Without
the purposeful routine of the academic More...
year, he finds his role reduced to that of escort and house-husband
while his wife’s late-flowering career as the owner of a home design
store flourishes.
The monotony of his days is relieved only by
wearisome journeys to London to check on the welfare of his querulous,
elderly father, an ex-dance musician. But these discontents are nothing
compared to the affliction of hearing loss, which is a constant source
of domestic friction and social embarrassment. It is through his
deafness that Desmond inadvertently gets involved with a young woman
who seeks his support in matters academic and not so academic; and
whose wayward and unpredictable behavior threatens to destabilize his
life completely.
Deaf Sentence is a funny, moving account of
one man’s effort to come to terms with deafness and death, aging and
mortality, the comedy and tragedy of human life.