Previewing Sara Novic’s Mother Tongue

Deaf perspectives

Out this month from Penguin Random House, Mother Tongue began as a letter to her two sons: one deaf, one a hearing CODA (Child of a Deaf Adult). Novic, who is herself deaf, realized that she couldn’t write about her personal story without its broader contexts. Pulling on one thread invoked its thorny connections—the Christian right, international adoption, the history of oppression against the deaf community—and provided the scope of the finished book.

“As I wrote, I realized the inextricability of this one part of my identity, and theirs, from all the other parts, and the impossibility of parsing ourselves out into discreet boxes,” explained Novic. “So the project expanded to examine the intersections of those selves through race, religion, queerness, and adoption.”

Novic previously explored the deaf community in her novel True Biz, which follows two deaf students and a hearing headmistress at the fictional River Valley School for the Deaf. One of the story’s strengths is its variety of deaf perspectives: those of generationally deaf students, students with cochlear implants, Black deaf students and teachers, and more. “To my mind, that’s the best part of the deaf community in real life, too,” said Novic. “We’re all from different places and backgrounds, but we can come together and be at home in ASL.”

“Mother Tongue, in some ways, is a much narrower point-of-view, because it is only my experience,” continued Novic. “However, working in nonfiction allowed me to share more of the copious amounts of research I tend to do for every book, so in that way, other folks’ voices are still in the memoir, too.” To that end, Novic has shared clickable endnotes on her website, citing the multiplicity of voices that informed her own.

While Mother Tongue navigates complex histories, it ultimately offers a journey of hope—one that is rooted in Novic’s parenthood, in the ways she raises her sons within the deaf world and in the ways they grow beyond her.

“Being with my kids and their friends gives me so much hope—they are so much more flexible in their understanding of humanity, of ‘normalcy,’ of what it means to be at home in their bodies,” said Novic. “They are adept at code-switching, but still take pride in their differences rather than using that skillset as a way to mask or pass. The kids are alright, and even though we are handing them a profoundly messed up world, I look forward to seeing them come into their own, and working with them to try and make it better.”

Featured image: Sara Novic’s new memoir Mother Tongue debuts May 5, 2026. (Photo by Zachary Stone.)

Image description: Profile of Novic. They are wearing glasses and a button down shirt, tattoos on their arm, books on shelves in the background.

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