Mother Tongue

Part non-fiction history book with its focus on Deaf culture, language deprivation and Deaf experience and part memoir, this book was a great exploration of the author's experiences and a crash course in oppression and advocacy.

Sara Nović was born hearing and became deaf in her early teens. In Mother Tongue, she shares her experiences, struggles and successes as a friend, daughter, and mother, helping readers to better understand what it feels like to not fit in; the exhausting and constant battle to be seen and valued in a society that is heavily influenced by ableism, devaluing anyone different from the status quo. 

I went into this book knowing a lot about Deaf culture, history and ASL as a former ASL interpreter, but I appreciated Novic's deep dive into the politics, her experiences with adoption and the dark hold ableism still has over society. She goes into a lot more detail with some subjects than I was expecting, giving the book a nonfiction feel, but brings it back to how history and today's politics impact her and her young family. She keeps readers a bit at arm's length, but I respect  how she draws the line, sharing with her readers only the bits of her life she's comfortable with. 

Compelling and informative, Mother Tongue is an exploration of disability, oppression, Deaf advocacy and history, motherhood and the long-lasting impact of language deprivation. It will be an eye-opening read for many readers, giving them a better understanding of what it means to be Deaf in today's world.  

Disclaimer: Thanks to the publisher for the complimentary digital advanced copy of this book which was given to me in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 4 stars

Author: Sara Nović

Genre: Memoir, History, Deaf

Type and Source: ebook from publisher via NetGalley

Publisher: Random House

First Published: May 5, 2026

Read: May 1 - 5, 2026

Book Description from GoodReads:The New York Times bestselling author of True Biz retraces her path out of the hearing world and into the deaf community—and seeks to understand what it means to raise children who are different from her—in this emotionally rich memoir.

Sara Nović’s early years were steeped in music, Bible study, and a strong desire to fit in. But when she failed her school’s mandated hearing test, her worldview was thrown into chaos. Desperate not to be marked as different, she told no one, staying in the hearing world for as long as she could by brute force.

Eventually unable to ignore the fact that she was deaf, Nović sought out other deaf people and was welcomed into a tight knit community rooted in the beauty and joy of American Sign Language. Nović realized that rather than maintaining the facade of her old life or trying to straddle two worlds, she would need to cultivate an existence in the space between.

Now the mother of two young sons—one, biological and hearing, the other, adopted and deaf—Nović reflects on her life both before and after parenthood. She’s raising her children within the deaf world, offering them things her younger self needed, all the while knowing that as her children grow, their own paths will branch off from hers in ways she cannot fully predict or plan for.

Interwoven with Nović's personal story is a remarkable portrait of America through reflections on some of its most complex the rise of the Christian right, the thorny world of international adoption, and above all, the deaf and disabled communities’ stubborn survival in the face of persistent oppression.

Nović’s clear, bold voice is one readers will hold onto, learn from, argue with, and be inspired by, as she asks us to recognize difference as a source of opportunity rather than fear, as a chance to draw families and communities together, and to build something new.