The bestselling modern classic by the author of “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden” about a deaf couple, a child of deaf adults, and the bond they forge 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.
Deaf since birth, Abel Ryder grows up misunderstood and forced to learn to speak. It is not until he's sent from his rural hometown to a school for deaf students that he's exposed to Sign, opening his eyes to the richness of language and leading him to Janice, a fellow deaf student whose command over words enamors him. “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.
