Poetry Book Club: Deaf Republic
September 30 @ 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Our poetry selection for September is Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky. If you haven’t already, please complete the form and be sure to purchase your copy at Scholar & Scribe to read beforehand…and get 10% off when you do!
Ilya Kaminsky’s astonishing parable in poems asks us, What is silence?
Deaf Republic opens in an occupied country in a time of political unrest. When soldiers breaking up a protest kill a deaf boy, Petya, the gunshot becomes the last thing the citizens hear—they all have gone deaf, and their dissent becomes coordinated by sign language. The story follows the private lives of townspeople encircled by public violence: a newly married couple, Alfonso and Sonya, expecting a child; the brash Momma Galya, instigating the insurgency from her puppet theater; and Galya’s girls, heroically teaching signing by day and by night luring soldiers one by one to their deaths behind the curtain. At once a love story, an elegy, and an urgent plea, Ilya Kaminsky’s long-awaited Deaf Republic confronts our time’s vicious atrocities and our collective silence in the face of them.
This is a great opportunity to share your thoughts and connect with fellow book lovers. We look forward to seeing you there!
If you purchase the audiobook through Libro.fm, send your receipt to hello@scholarandscribe.com to be added to the club. Same, if you order through Bookshop.org!