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In This Sign

Author Joanne Greenberg
Introduction by Sara Novic
Afterword by Joanne Greenberg
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Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Classics
On sale Sep 03, 2024 | 304 Pages | 9780593512180
Grades 9-12 + AP/IB
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The bestselling modern classic by the author of I Never Promised You a Rose Garden about a deaf couple, their hearing child, and the bond they create 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

“Astute and wholly authentic . . . This novel isn’t only one of deaf hardship, but also one of bravery and great joy. . . . Over the course of it, I was often as gripped . . . as I am while reading a thriller.” —Sara Nović, from the Introduction

A Penguin Classic

Abel and Janice meet at a school for the deaf. Sign language brings them together, enabling them to survive and, indeed, to forge a love too powerful to be broken by the world into which they were born. Spanning forty years, from the late 1920s to the early 1960s, 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.

For more than seventy-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 2,000 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
“From its first pages, it’s clear how effective Greenberg is at capturing the nuances of deaf culture. . . . Greenberg’s novel is nuanced in its portrayal of deaf people compared to the general understanding at the time. . . . Impressively, Greenberg is also leagues ahead of her contemporaries; deaf characters of note immediately before and after the publication of In This Sign are almost laughably one-dimensional in comparison . . . with even talented writers seeming either incurious about dismantling deaf-related clichés or bolstered by the rhetoric of saviorism to speak over the deaf in problematic ways. . . . Greenberg make[s] the minutiae of our daily lives feel . . . monumental.” —Sara Nović, from the Introduction

“A miracle of empathy.” —The New York Times

“A haunting book . . . unforgettably vivid.” —Library Journal
© Daniel Mackler
Joanne Greenberg is an internationally renowned, award-winning author of sixteen novels and four collections of short stories. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she graduated from American University, where she majored in anthropology and English, and also studied at the University of London and the University of Colorado. Her second novel, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, published in 1964, has sold millions of copies and was adapted into a 1977 movie and a 2004 play of the same name. Greenberg lives near Lookout Mountain, Colorado, where she writes daily, tutors Latin and Hebrew, is active in the Beth Evergreen congregation, has been an adjunct professor of cultural anthropology and fiction writing at the Colorado School of Mines, and has volunteered as an EMT. Her website is rosegardenwriter.com. View titles by Joanne Greenberg

About

The bestselling modern classic by the author of I Never Promised You a Rose Garden about a deaf couple, their hearing child, and the bond they create 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

“Astute and wholly authentic . . . This novel isn’t only one of deaf hardship, but also one of bravery and great joy. . . . Over the course of it, I was often as gripped . . . as I am while reading a thriller.” —Sara Nović, from the Introduction

A Penguin Classic

Abel and Janice meet at a school for the deaf. Sign language brings them together, enabling them to survive and, indeed, to forge a love too powerful to be broken by the world into which they were born. Spanning forty years, from the late 1920s to the early 1960s, 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.

For more than seventy-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 2,000 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Reviews

“From its first pages, it’s clear how effective Greenberg is at capturing the nuances of deaf culture. . . . Greenberg’s novel is nuanced in its portrayal of deaf people compared to the general understanding at the time. . . . Impressively, Greenberg is also leagues ahead of her contemporaries; deaf characters of note immediately before and after the publication of In This Sign are almost laughably one-dimensional in comparison . . . with even talented writers seeming either incurious about dismantling deaf-related clichés or bolstered by the rhetoric of saviorism to speak over the deaf in problematic ways. . . . Greenberg make[s] the minutiae of our daily lives feel . . . monumental.” —Sara Nović, from the Introduction

“A miracle of empathy.” —The New York Times

“A haunting book . . . unforgettably vivid.” —Library Journal

Author

© Daniel Mackler
Joanne Greenberg is an internationally renowned, award-winning author of sixteen novels and four collections of short stories. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she graduated from American University, where she majored in anthropology and English, and also studied at the University of London and the University of Colorado. Her second novel, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, published in 1964, has sold millions of copies and was adapted into a 1977 movie and a 2004 play of the same name. Greenberg lives near Lookout Mountain, Colorado, where she writes daily, tutors Latin and Hebrew, is active in the Beth Evergreen congregation, has been an adjunct professor of cultural anthropology and fiction writing at the Colorado School of Mines, and has volunteered as an EMT. Her website is rosegardenwriter.com. View titles by Joanne Greenberg

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