Sound: A Memoir of Hearing Lost and Found

"A moving and fascinating book about sound and what it means to be human" from the Somerset Maugham Award–winning author of The Lighthouse Stevensons (Financial Times).
In this surprising and moving book, award-winning writer Bella Bathurst shares the extraordinary true story of how she lost her hearing and eventually regained it and what she learned from her twelve years of deafness. Diving into a wide-ranging exploration of silence and noise, she interviews psychologists, ear surgeons, and professors to uncover fascinating insights about the science of sound. But she also speaks with ordinary people who are deaf or have lost their hearing, including musicians, war veterans, and factory workers, to offer a perceptive, thought-provoking look at what sound means to us.
If sight gives us the world, then hearing—or our ability to listen—gives us our connections with other people. But, as this smart, funny, and profoundly honest examination reveals, our relationship with sound is both more personal and far more complex than we might expect.
"Bathurst is a restless, curious writer . . . After reading this book, I found myself listening in a richer and more interested way." —The Guardian
"A hymn to the faculty of hearing by someone who had it, lost it and then found it again, written with passion and intelligence . . . terrifying, absorbing and ultimately uplifting." —Literary Review
"Bathurst's affecting memoir will enlighten and educate." —Publishers Weekly
"A memoir of hearing loss and what the author learned . . . through her unexpected recovery from it. A good writer knows material when it presents itself, and Bathurst is a very good writer." —Kirkus Reviews

1127124979
Sound: A Memoir of Hearing Lost and Found

"A moving and fascinating book about sound and what it means to be human" from the Somerset Maugham Award–winning author of The Lighthouse Stevensons (Financial Times).
In this surprising and moving book, award-winning writer Bella Bathurst shares the extraordinary true story of how she lost her hearing and eventually regained it and what she learned from her twelve years of deafness. Diving into a wide-ranging exploration of silence and noise, she interviews psychologists, ear surgeons, and professors to uncover fascinating insights about the science of sound. But she also speaks with ordinary people who are deaf or have lost their hearing, including musicians, war veterans, and factory workers, to offer a perceptive, thought-provoking look at what sound means to us.
If sight gives us the world, then hearing—or our ability to listen—gives us our connections with other people. But, as this smart, funny, and profoundly honest examination reveals, our relationship with sound is both more personal and far more complex than we might expect.
"Bathurst is a restless, curious writer . . . After reading this book, I found myself listening in a richer and more interested way." —The Guardian
"A hymn to the faculty of hearing by someone who had it, lost it and then found it again, written with passion and intelligence . . . terrifying, absorbing and ultimately uplifting." —Literary Review
"Bathurst's affecting memoir will enlighten and educate." —Publishers Weekly
"A memoir of hearing loss and what the author learned . . . through her unexpected recovery from it. A good writer knows material when it presents itself, and Bathurst is a very good writer." —Kirkus Reviews

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Sound: A Memoir of Hearing Lost and Found

Sound: A Memoir of Hearing Lost and Found

by Bella Bathurst
Sound: A Memoir of Hearing Lost and Found

Sound: A Memoir of Hearing Lost and Found

by Bella Bathurst

eBook

$11.99 

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Overview

"A moving and fascinating book about sound and what it means to be human" from the Somerset Maugham Award–winning author of The Lighthouse Stevensons (Financial Times).
In this surprising and moving book, award-winning writer Bella Bathurst shares the extraordinary true story of how she lost her hearing and eventually regained it and what she learned from her twelve years of deafness. Diving into a wide-ranging exploration of silence and noise, she interviews psychologists, ear surgeons, and professors to uncover fascinating insights about the science of sound. But she also speaks with ordinary people who are deaf or have lost their hearing, including musicians, war veterans, and factory workers, to offer a perceptive, thought-provoking look at what sound means to us.
If sight gives us the world, then hearing—or our ability to listen—gives us our connections with other people. But, as this smart, funny, and profoundly honest examination reveals, our relationship with sound is both more personal and far more complex than we might expect.
"Bathurst is a restless, curious writer . . . After reading this book, I found myself listening in a richer and more interested way." —The Guardian
"A hymn to the faculty of hearing by someone who had it, lost it and then found it again, written with passion and intelligence . . . terrifying, absorbing and ultimately uplifting." —Literary Review
"Bathurst's affecting memoir will enlighten and educate." —Publishers Weekly
"A memoir of hearing loss and what the author learned . . . through her unexpected recovery from it. A good writer knows material when it presents itself, and Bathurst is a very good writer." —Kirkus Reviews


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781771643832
Publisher: Greystone Books
Publication date: 10/02/2018
Sold by: OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED - EBKS
Format: eBook
Pages: 224
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

Bella Bathurst is a writer, photojournalist, and furniture maker. She has written four nonfiction books, including The Lighthouse Stevensons, which won the 1999 Somerset Maugham Award, and a novel, Special, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Her writing has appeared in the Guardian, the Observer, and many other outlets.

Table of Contents

1 Sailing 1

2 Hearing 25

3 Aid 37

4 Loss 48

5 Conduction 66

6 Rock 78

7 Acoustics 95

8 Silence 113

9 Distortion 122

10 Sign 145

11 Vision 161

12 Surfacing 174

13 Listening 190

14 Music 200

Further Reading 203

Acknowledgements 209

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"After reading this book, I found myself listening in a richer and more interested way."
— Guardian

"Bathurst’s affecting memoir will enlighten and educate."
— Publishers Weekly

"A memoir of hearing loss and what the author learned...through her unexpected recovery from it. A good writer knows material when it presents itself, and Bathurst is a very good writer."
— Kirkus Reviews

"A hymn to the faculty of hearing by someone who had it, lost it and then found it again, written with passion and intelligence … terrifying, absorbing and ultimately uplifting."
— Literary Review

"Less a memoir than an investigation of the importance of sound in human life … a moving and fascinating book."
— Financial Times

"Packed with detail about the physiology of hearing, the intricacies of acoustics and Bathurst's particular experience, Sound is a powerful argument for true listening"
— Shelf Awareness

"[Bathurst] explores all aspects of sound, a phenomenon so powerful and versatile it can lull us to sleep, send us in to transcendence, or drive us mad."
— Politics and Prose

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