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The Sign for Home

A Novel

by Blair Fell

Narrator Blair Fell

This audiobook uses AI narration.

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Length 14 hours 8 minutes

Language English

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Bookseller recommendation

“Unforgettable and completely unique! Fell illuminates DeafBlind life in Arlo Dilly, who will steal your heart as he journeys to experience life and independence, and to break free of those who have been holding him back. A must read!”
— Maxwell Gregory • Madison Street Books

Bookseller recommendation

“This is one of my favorite books ever. If you enjoy the complexity of human communication and the ways that we understand each other, this is the book for you. I have recommended it to probably half of all people I’ve talked to since I read it several years ago. ”
— Carling • Under the Umbrella

Summary
About the author
About the narrator

Longlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize

When a young DeafBlind man learns the girl he thought was lost forever might still be out there, he embarks on a life-changing journey to find her—and his freedom.

Arlo Dilly is young, handsome, and eager to meet the right girl. He also happens to be DeafBlind, a Jehovah’s Witness, and under the strict guardianship of his controlling uncle. His chances of finding someone to love seem slim to none.

And yet, it happened once before: many years ago, at a boarding school for the Deaf, Arlo met the love of his life—a mysterious girl with onyx eyes and beautifully expressive hands which told him the most amazing stories. But tragedy struck, and their love was lost forever.

Or so Arlo thought.

After years trying to heal his broken heart, Arlo is assigned a college writing assignment which unlocks buried memories of his past. Soon he wonders if the hearing people he was supposed to trust have been lying to him all along, and if his lost love might be found again.

No longer willing to accept what others tell him, Arlo convinces a small band of misfit friends to set off on a journey to learn the truth. After all, who better to bring on this quest than his gay interpreter and wildly inappropriate Belgian best friend? Despite the many forces working against him, Arlo will stop at nothing to find the girl who got away and experience all of life’s joyful possibilities.

Fiction Romance Perspectives on Disability

Blair Fell writes and lives in Jackson Heights, New York, with his partner. Blair’s television work includes Queer as Folk, and the Emmy Award–winning California Connected. He’s written dozens of plays including the award-winning plays Naked Will, The Tragic and Horrible Life of the Singing Nun, and the downtown cult miniseries Burning Habits. His personal essays have appeared in HuffPost, Out, Daily News (New York), and more. He’s a two-time winner of the prestigious Doris Lippman Prize in Creative Writing from the City College of New York, including for his early unfinished draft of The Sign for Home. Concurrently with being a writer, Blair has been an ASL interpreter for the Deaf since 1993, and has also worked as an actor, producer, and director.