The Quiet Ear
An Investigation of Missing Sound
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pre-order for $13.65
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
By:
-
Raymond Antrobus
About this listen
In this groundbreaking memoir, an acclaimed young poet explores what it means to live in the "in-betweenness" of the deaf and hearing worlds.
I live with the aid of deafness. Like poetry, it has given me an art, a history, a culture and a tradition to live through. This book charts that art in the hopes of offering a map, a mirror, a small part of a larger story.
At the hospital where Raymond Antrobus was born, a midwife snapped her fingers by his ears and gauged his response. It was his first hearing test, and he passed. For years, Antrobus lived as a deaf person in the hearing world, before he was diagnosed at the age of six.
This “in-betweenness” was a space he would occupy in other areas of his life too. The son of a Jamaican father and white British mother, growing up in East London, it was easy for him to fall through the cracks. Growing up, he was told that he wasn’t smart enough, wasn’t black enough, wasn’t deaf enough.
It was only when he was fitted with hearing aids at the age of seven, that he began to discover his missing sounds: the high pitches of whistles, birds, alarms, the “sh, ch, ba, th” sounds in speech—all of it missing.
The Quiet Ear is an attempt to fill in those missing sounds in Antrobus’ own life, and how they formed his hybrid deaf identity. It’s a story of a journey of finding your path when there are no signs to show the way, and a testament to the people—his parents and teachers, artists, writers, and musicians—who helped form his language: spoken, written, and signed. It’s also about becoming a father to a hearing son, and trying to know the ways in which they might understand and misunderstand one another.
Weaving together memoir, criticism, and cultural history, and touching on both the spectrum of the deaf experience and how society fails deaf people, Antrobus finds his own way to reclaim his deafness as a power and a joy, and to reconcile his relationship to words and the world around him.
©2025 Raymond Antrobus (P)2025 Random House AudioCritic reviews
“A powerful and important book . . . This expansive memoir chronicles Antrobus’s 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 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, editor of Disability Intimacy and author of Year of the Tiger
“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
Related to this topic
-
The Boyfriend
- By: Freida McFadden
- Narrated by: Victoria Connolly, Robb Moreira
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sydney Shaw, like every single woman in New York, has terrible luck with dating. She’s seen it all: men who lie in their dating profile, men who stick her with the dinner bill, and worst of all, men who can't shut up about their mothers. But finally, she hits the jackpot. Her new boyfriend is utterly perfect. He's charming, handsome, and works as a doctor at a local hospital. Sydney is swept off her feet. Then the brutal murder of a young woman—the latest in a string of deaths across the coast—confounds police. The primary suspect? A mystery man who dates his victims before he kills them.
-
-
Just didn’t find it interesting.
- By Lori Cathey on 10-11-24
By: Freida McFadden
-
Here One Moment
- By: Liane Moriarty
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee, Geraldine Hakewill
- Length: 15 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The plane is jam-packed. Every seat is taken. So of course the flight is delayed! Flight attendant Allegra Patel likes her job—she’s generally happy with her life, even if she can’t figure out why she hooks up with a man she barely speaks to—but today is her twenty-eighth birthday. She can think of plenty of things she’d rather be doing than placating a bunch of grumpy passengers.
-
-
Too much of the death lady!
- By karen on 09-28-24
By: Liane Moriarty
-
Atomic Habits
- An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
- By: James Clear
- Narrated by: James Clear
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving - every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results. If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change.
-
-
start here, if you are looking to achieve in life
- By NL on 10-22-18
By: James Clear
-
The Christmas Party
- By: Kathryn Croft
- Narrated by: Billie Piper, Avita Jay
- Length: 4 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Sasha receives a call from her old university friend Gabby inviting her to spend Christmas at Gabby’s remote Scottish lake house, Sasha knows she shouldn’t go. Twelve years ago, on Christmas Eve, when Sasha and her five closest friends were celebrating the festive season, something truly horrific happened that would change the course of their friendship forever. Something that meant Sasha hasn’t spoken to any of them since that night.
-
-
The mystery of the story.
- By Charlene Gipson on 11-06-24
By: Kathryn Croft
-
All the Colors of the Dark
- By: Chris Whitaker
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1975 is a time of change in America. The Vietnam War is ending. Muhammad Ali is fighting Joe Frazier. And in the small town of Monta Clare, Missouri, girls are disappearing. When the daughter of a wealthy family is targeted, the most unlikely hero emerges—Patch, a local boy, who saves the girl, and, in doing so, leaves heartache in his wake. Patch and those who love him soon discover that the line between triumph and tragedy has never been finer. And that their search for answers will lead them to truths that could mean losing one another.
-
-
Best book of 2024
- By Jmo930 on 07-04-24
By: Chris Whitaker
-
10 Rules for the Perfect Murder
- By: James Patterson, Chris Tebbetts
- Narrated by: Reid Scott, Cobie Smulders, full cast
- Length: 3 hrs and 2 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the killing of a prominent mob lawyer, NYPD homicide detectives Jacob Jackson and Caitlin Grimes start receive chilling, written “rules” for how to commit the perfect murder. "Rule number one for the perfect murder: Evidence is your enemy. Leave none behind." Jackson (Reid Scott) and Grimes (Cobie Smulders) race to find the killer, setting them on a collision course with the city’s crime underbelly, and a perpetrator who seems happy to toy with them. “Rule number two. No crimes of passion. The perfect murder is always business, never pleasure.”
-
-
Tricky
- By Robert Scott Read on 10-30-24
By: James Patterson, and others
-
The Boyfriend
- By: Freida McFadden
- Narrated by: Victoria Connolly, Robb Moreira
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sydney Shaw, like every single woman in New York, has terrible luck with dating. She’s seen it all: men who lie in their dating profile, men who stick her with the dinner bill, and worst of all, men who can't shut up about their mothers. But finally, she hits the jackpot. Her new boyfriend is utterly perfect. He's charming, handsome, and works as a doctor at a local hospital. Sydney is swept off her feet. Then the brutal murder of a young woman—the latest in a string of deaths across the coast—confounds police. The primary suspect? A mystery man who dates his victims before he kills them.
-
-
Just didn’t find it interesting.
- By Lori Cathey on 10-11-24
By: Freida McFadden
-
Here One Moment
- By: Liane Moriarty
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee, Geraldine Hakewill
- Length: 15 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The plane is jam-packed. Every seat is taken. So of course the flight is delayed! Flight attendant Allegra Patel likes her job—she’s generally happy with her life, even if she can’t figure out why she hooks up with a man she barely speaks to—but today is her twenty-eighth birthday. She can think of plenty of things she’d rather be doing than placating a bunch of grumpy passengers.
-
-
Too much of the death lady!
- By karen on 09-28-24
By: Liane Moriarty
-
Atomic Habits
- An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
- By: James Clear
- Narrated by: James Clear
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving - every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results. If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change.
-
-
start here, if you are looking to achieve in life
- By NL on 10-22-18
By: James Clear
-
The Christmas Party
- By: Kathryn Croft
- Narrated by: Billie Piper, Avita Jay
- Length: 4 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Sasha receives a call from her old university friend Gabby inviting her to spend Christmas at Gabby’s remote Scottish lake house, Sasha knows she shouldn’t go. Twelve years ago, on Christmas Eve, when Sasha and her five closest friends were celebrating the festive season, something truly horrific happened that would change the course of their friendship forever. Something that meant Sasha hasn’t spoken to any of them since that night.
-
-
The mystery of the story.
- By Charlene Gipson on 11-06-24
By: Kathryn Croft
-
All the Colors of the Dark
- By: Chris Whitaker
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1975 is a time of change in America. The Vietnam War is ending. Muhammad Ali is fighting Joe Frazier. And in the small town of Monta Clare, Missouri, girls are disappearing. When the daughter of a wealthy family is targeted, the most unlikely hero emerges—Patch, a local boy, who saves the girl, and, in doing so, leaves heartache in his wake. Patch and those who love him soon discover that the line between triumph and tragedy has never been finer. And that their search for answers will lead them to truths that could mean losing one another.
-
-
Best book of 2024
- By Jmo930 on 07-04-24
By: Chris Whitaker
-
10 Rules for the Perfect Murder
- By: James Patterson, Chris Tebbetts
- Narrated by: Reid Scott, Cobie Smulders, full cast
- Length: 3 hrs and 2 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the killing of a prominent mob lawyer, NYPD homicide detectives Jacob Jackson and Caitlin Grimes start receive chilling, written “rules” for how to commit the perfect murder. "Rule number one for the perfect murder: Evidence is your enemy. Leave none behind." Jackson (Reid Scott) and Grimes (Cobie Smulders) race to find the killer, setting them on a collision course with the city’s crime underbelly, and a perpetrator who seems happy to toy with them. “Rule number two. No crimes of passion. The perfect murder is always business, never pleasure.”
-
-
Tricky
- By Robert Scott Read on 10-30-24
By: James Patterson, and others