The Quiet Ear

Raymond Antrobus's ability to open-up and share the different ways his Deaf identity has shaped his life is profoundly unique and moving. The Quiet Ear is a must-read for anyone currently on the journey to understanding their Deaf identity -- Rose Ayling-Ellis
I've been a fan of Raymond's writing since The Perseverance and The Quiet Ear sees his voice take yet another leap. Ray writes with incredible tenderness and curiosity, writing about deafness in a way that is generous, expansive and, most importantly, honest. Ray's incredible capacity for documenting the interior is on full show here, traversing not just his griefs and losses but his hopes and joys too. This book left me transformed -- Caleb Azumah Nelson, author of Open Water
The finest words from one of the finest poets. He gives true and new meaning to the term 'finding his voice' . . . If you want to experience what it is like to be an outsider on the inside or an insider on the outside, read The Quiet Ear. Lean in to The Quiet Ear. Listen -- Lemn Sissay, author of My Name is Why
I absolutely loved this book. The Quiet Ear pulses with generosity. Among other things, it offers a nuanced exploration of self in relation to sound and an entry point into the historical and contemporary richness of D/deaf culture. A tender triumph -- Emma Warren, author of Dance Your Way Home
A moving and expansive book about the long journey of finding a voice, and the joy and power of using it -- Seán Hewitt, author of All Down Darkness Wide
A powerful and important book. This expansive memoir chronicles Antrobus' vexed journey across and between the multitudes he contains: his Jamaican heritage and his British one; his blackness and his whiteness; and, again and again, the fraught but ultimately joyful experience of living between hearing and deafness. His voice is at once blunt and lyrical, angry and curious -- Andrew Leland, Pulitzer Prize-Finalist and author of The Country of the Blind
The Quiet Ear is a marvel, a story of his life as a Deaf man in a society as unjust as ours, which he investigates with clarity, honesty, endless patience and tenderness . . . The book is a confession, an arts poetica, a manifesto. The reader learns what it might mean to live between sound and its lack, what it is to discover and remake one's own culture, between Britain and Jamaica, Deafness and birdsong. Which is to say: you will find here what it is to watch and be watched by our world, what it is to be a good human in a tough time, to be filled with wonder, even in the age of a crumbling empire, what it is to be a young father, an ageing son, a human being with talent for language that is memorable and clarifying. Antrobus is a terrific writer, yes, but what is more, he is an honest one -- Ilya Kaminsky, National Book Award-Finalist and author of Deaf Republic
The Quiet Ear presents a complex portrait of deafness that goes beyond living without sound. Antrobus situates his own personal story of growing up not quite Black or deaf enough within larger contexts of D/deaf culture, race, masculinity, and colonialism. Lyrical, moving and powerful -- Alice Wong, author of Disability Intimacies: Essays on Love, Care and Desire and Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life
The Quiet Ear is expansive, generous, and massively tender. A beautiful exploration of an interior life grappling with several magnitudes of loss, and what can be found within them -- Hanif Abdurraqib, author of There’s Always This Year
Beautifully complicates and expands our understanding of what deafness is. . . The Quiet Ear has given me new ways to think about the vibration of sound, the movement of language, and the complicated contours of shame. It is a book that changed how I will move through the world -- Clint Smith, author of How the Word is Passed

The Quiet Ear is a masterclass in vulnerability, language, and the complexity of listening. With extraordinary sensitivity and precision, Raymond invites us into the intimate terrain of deafness - not as a limitation, but as a rich and nuanced way of experiencing the world. His writing is lyrical and sharply observant, pulling threads from silence, sound, and memory to weave something thought-provoking and deeply human.

What sets Raymond apart is not only his poetic craft, but his unflinching honesty. He doesn't explain deafness; he reveals it through metaphor and through anecdote, offering readers a lens both deeply personal and universally resonant. The Quiet Ear isn't simply about hearing; it's about perception, identity and the politics of language. Raymond doesn't just open our ears - he opens our understanding

-- Dame Evelyn Glennie, CH
A profound exploration of deafness, identity, and the ways they intersect with race, history, and culture. With lyrical precision and unflinching honesty, Antrobus interrogates how society has shaped the narratives around deafness - both personal and collective - and the burdens placed on those who must explain, justify, or translate their existence for the comfort or curiosity of others. Blending memoir, cultural criticism, and poetic inquiry, The Quiet Ear examines the ways sound, silence, and perception shape not only selfhood but also the relationships we build with the world around us. Through reflections on history, art, and personal experience, Antrobus reveals the deep impact of representation - how deafness has been framed in literature and popular culture, and how those portrayals influence both those who are deaf and those who are not. With luminous prose and incisive insight, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in identity's evolving and performed nature. Part memoir of sound, part meditation on artistic expression,The Quiet Ear is destined to become a modern classic -- Roger Robinson, author of A Portable Paradise
In The Quiet Ear, Antrobus puts into words and feeling and experience I didn't yet know how to describe: receiving that felt like a gift. Personal, intimate, revelatory writing of real significance -- Jenn Ashworth, author of The Parallel Path
Wow, what a thoughtful, nuanced, gentle and quietly revelatory read. Raymond's family history was interesting, but the piece really flourishes when he talks about his own experience - his subtlety, fine perceptions, careful detailing and attentiveness brought me inside these scenes in an incredibly special way. As we all know, the personal is political and so at the same time I sensed an inner steely core as the author interacts not just with the noises and vibrations of the non-deaf world but also its multitudes of stereotypes, misconceptions and prejudices, not only around deafness but also sex, race and class. It's a testament to the literary empathy of the writer that these factors are worn and borne with great subtlety and integrated into an overall work - and creative and cultural life - with great richness and depth -- Bidisha