Mother Tongue- A Memoir.jpg
Mother Tongue- A Memoir.jpg

Mother Tongue by Sara Nović

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Hardcover:

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • The New York Times bestselling author of True Biz retraces her path out of the hearing world and into the deaf community—and seeks to understand what it means to raise children who are different from her—in this emotionally rich memoir.

“In this enraging history and big-hearted family saga, Sara Nović has skillfully subverted the dividing lines of identity, her deafness becoming the thread that connects us all.”—Sierra Crane Murdoch, author of Yellow Bird

Sara Nović lost her hearing at twelve and spent years hiding it, desperate not to be marked as different. This memoir traces her path out of the hearing world and into a Deaf community built on American Sign Language, joy, and history.

Now a mother herself — to a son adopted from Thailand who is also deaf — Nović turns her attention to what it means to raise a child whose experience of the world differs from her own, and from the world around them both.

Interwoven with her personal story is a wider portrait of America: the rise of the Christian right, the complicated ethics of international adoption, and the long, ongoing fight of Deaf and disabled communities for recognition.

Mother Tongue asks readers to see difference not as a deficit but as a source of connection — a thread that, once you notice it, runs through every family.

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • The New York Times bestselling author of True Biz retraces her path out of the hearing world and into the deaf community—and seeks to understand what it means to raise children who are different from her—in this emotionally rich memoir.

“In this enraging history and big-hearted family saga, Sara Nović has skillfully subverted the dividing lines of identity, her deafness becoming the thread that connects us all.”—Sierra Crane Murdoch, author of Yellow Bird

Sara Nović lost her hearing at twelve and spent years hiding it, desperate not to be marked as different. This memoir traces her path out of the hearing world and into a Deaf community built on American Sign Language, joy, and history.

Now a mother herself — to a son adopted from Thailand who is also deaf — Nović turns her attention to what it means to raise a child whose experience of the world differs from her own, and from the world around them both.

Interwoven with her personal story is a wider portrait of America: the rise of the Christian right, the complicated ethics of international adoption, and the long, ongoing fight of Deaf and disabled communities for recognition.

Mother Tongue asks readers to see difference not as a deficit but as a source of connection — a thread that, once you notice it, runs through every family.

  • Publisher: Random House (Penguin Random House)

    Title: Mother Tongue: A Memoir

    Author: Sara Nović

    On Sale Date: May 5, 2026

    ISBN 13: 9780593241530

    Format: Hardcover

    Retail Price: $29.00

    Page Count: 272

  • Sara Nović is the New York Times bestselling author of True Biz, a Reese’s Book Club pick, and Girl at War, an Alex Award winner and Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist. She is deaf and teaches deaf studies.

    • Praised as an “enraging history and big-hearted family saga” by author Sierra Crane Murdoch.

    • Called “a book I want to press into everyone’s hands” by novelist Esmé Weijun Wang.

    • A personal memoir woven through with a wider history of Deaf culture in America.

    • Featured on NPR, where Nović discussed the book through an ASL interpreter.

This book is for you if

  • You want a memoir that moves between personal history and wider social history.

  • You’re interested in Deaf culture, American Sign Language, and disability advocacy.

  • You appreciate writers who turn a hard personal experience into something bigger than themselves.

  • You’re drawn to stories about parenting a child whose experience differs from your own.

  • You loved True Biz and want to know the true story behind it.

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