New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2003. First edition - The author's first novel - and her first book to be published in the US. This story of a young deaf woman was written as a tribute to Itani's grandmother who was deaf from the age of 18 months as a result of scarlet fever. Very highly praised: among the dust jacket comments is this by Alistair MacLeod: 'This exceptional novel moves from the silence of the deaf to the cacophony of 'the front' during World War I. .. From the haunting effects of a childhood disease to the random horrors of war, the uncertainties that become our certainties have seldom been so well explored. Tremendously moving... a remarkable accomplishment.'