The Sign for Home: A Novel

by Blair Fell Narrated by Blair Fell

Overview

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.

Editorial Reviews

Library Journal - Audio

★ 06/01/2022

In this delightful coming-of-age debut novel, 23-year-old Arlo excitedly begins his first college writing class with the help of his new sign language interpreter, Cyril, a disillusioned and heartbroken gay man who isn't used to working with the DeafBlind. Arlo's Jehovah's Witness upbringing stifled his success: his main translator Molly selectively interprets for him, and his uncle shelters him from sinful technology, as well as making him eat too many bologna sandwiches. Arlo's teenage life included a secret love lost, as well as lost friendships, and Cyril is determined to help Arlo reconnect with his past. Their working partnership blossoms—Arlo learns about the American Disabilities Act and new technology for the DeafBlind, while Cyril matures and helps Arlo fight for what is right. Author/narrator Fell (who is an ASL interpreter) wonderfully narrates the novel, complete with accents, anguish, and joy. Arlo's disjointed way of speaking through Cyril with incorrect verb tenses and short sentences is perfect for audio. Fell's narration is similar to that of Odyssey award winner Tim Federle—expressive, earnest, and heartwarming. VERDICT Perfect for any reader wanting an enjoyable, sweet listen.—Sarah Hill

Publishers Weekly

02/28/2022

A man sets out to find the one who got away in Fell’s sweet debut. Arlo Dilly, a 23-year-old deaf and blind Jehovah’s Witness, has been sheltered and isolated under the guardianship of his uncle, Brother Birch, and longtime interpreter, Molly. After he enrolls in a summer writing course, he searches for another interpreter to assist Molly in class. Cyril Brewster takes the gig and alerts Arlo to the extent that Molly had been derelict in her interpreting duties, making decisions on Arlo’s behalf without consulting him. Meanwhile, a school assignment stirs up Arlo’s memories of Shri, the girl he fell in love with at a boarding school for the deaf, and the events that led to his expulsion. Then, a reunion with an old friend reveals that Shri might still be alive, contrary to what Molly and Brother Birch had told Arlo, so he enlists Cyril’s help to find her. But after Brother Birch catches wind of the plan, he fires Cyril and restricts Arlo’s limited independence, prompting Arlo to strike out for New York City alone and leaving Cyril and Molly to team up to find him and then reunite him with Shri. Fell writes with a deep compassion and keen attention to the experiences of living with deafness and blindness. This heartfelt romance is hard to resist. (Apr.)

BookReporter.com

"Reading THE SIGN FOR HOME will cause you to experience many emotions, from indignation to horror to heartbreak. Ultimately, though, this is a novel about the power of love —- not just romantic love but the love that evolves from friendship. It's a beautiful story that’s powerfully told."

James Hannaham

"A hilarious, peculiar and very touching story about a deaf, blind Jehovah’s Witness boy and his gay interpreter."

The Millions

*April's Most Anticipated*

Laurie Frankel

"As if complex characters, a compelling voice, smart stylistic choices, and the fierce defense of diversity, accessibility, and equality were not enough, THE SIGN FOR HOME also immersed me in an engrossing and important conversation I knew too little about. I closed this book more enlightened, more engaged, and more hopeful than I was when I opened it, and I enjoyed every page along the way."

BookPage

"Tender, hilarious and decidedly uplifting."

|Los Angeles Times

Poignant . . . . Riveting

Buzzfeed

"A unique coming-of-age romance."

Goodreads

*The 2022 Pride Reading List: 72 New Books to Read All Year*

Library Journal

03/01/2022

DEBUT Arlo Dilly, a DeafBlind young man, lives under the strict control of his uncle, a devout Jehovah's Witness. As Arlo's world widens with the arrival of his new interpreter, Cyril, memories of a beautiful young woman he met in a Deaf boarding school resurface, and he gradually realizes that those closest to him are keeping secrets and holding him back. Despite the forces working against him, he breaks free, striking out to find his one true love. Screenwriter, playwright, and American Sign Language interpreter Fell's premise is intriguing but the pacing is slow—though it picks up, albeit deep into the novel, when Arlo's focus shifts to finding his long-lost girlfriend. He is helped by Cyril and an eclectic group of dedicated supporters on his path to freedom, independence, and self-discovery. VERDICT Although the execution is sluggish, the story is ultimately a triumphant coming-of-age tale.—Julie Whiteley

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173289681
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	04/05/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	1,217,840

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1: Sniff 1 SNIFF
Sniff.

The air of your room. The odor of sheets and blankets, hot summer dust, old technology equipment, an Old Spice deodorant stick worn to a nub. The stinging smell of detergent from the washing machine outside your door burns the lining of your nostrils.

You are sitting alone at your desk in your T-shirt and shorts. The undersides of your thighs are sweaty and stick to the fiberglass chair. The tips of your fingers rub themselves against the cool plastic keys on the keyboard. You tilt your head down close to it.

Sniff.

Plastic-and-dripped-coffee smell. Maybe the sticky crumbs of old peanut butter and grape jelly sandwiches? You lift the back of your wrist to your nose.

Sniff.

Soap, hair, and skin.

You look toward the computer screen, your face just inches away. Making love to the screen, your trainer from the Abilities Institute called it. The white screen has been inverted to black because it’s easier on your eyes—or eye, rather, as there’s only one that has any usable vision left. The giant white cursor, magnified with your ZoomText software, winks at you over and over again, calling you to write, demanding you take control of your sinful mind. You begin to type three-inch-tall white letters that march across the screen one at a time... T... O... M... R... S...

To Mrs. Clara Shuster, MSW

I have getted your email. Please telling potential MALE interpreter (10 a.m.) and female interpreter (11 a.m.) with TOP TACTILE ASL SKILLS I will meet them and YOU tomorrow on ABILITIES INSTITUTE FOR THE DISABLED, 114 Skidmore Street, Poughkeepsie, NY, at SECOND floor conference room. After meeting BOTH MALE AND FEMALE ASL interpreters I will then DECIDING which will team with my OLD LONG TIME INTERPRETER MOLLY CLINCH.

You stop typing. Molly has been your interpreter and Support Service Provider, or SSP, since you were thirteen years old. Other than Brother Birch, Molly is the most important person in your life who is still alive. She was there when all the worst, unspeakable, sinful things happened.

Your fingers find their place back on the keyboard.

Tell INTERPRETERS bring jacket or sweater for interview, because Second floor of ABILITIES INSTITUTE on 114 Skidmore Street can getting COLD like refrigerator. (FROWNING) Cold, I guess, make Mrs. Clara Shuster SMARTER and WORK HARDER. HA HA. This is JOKE. (BIG SMILE)

Writing English is hard. Brother Birch says when hearing people read your writing they think you’re a small child. (You aren’t.) Or that you have developmental disabilities. (You don’t.) English is just not your first language. American Sign Language is. Writing in a language that you’ve literally never heard is like battling monsters with your hands tied behind your back. No matter how much you try to butt them with your head, they keep knocking you down. The worst are the confusing Preposition Monsters and the giant Verb-Tense Rodents, sharp-toothed beasts who time and again... have eat you? Have eat-ed you? Has ate you? Have will eaten you?

This is why Brother Birch is letting you take a class at the community college this summer to make you a better writer, which will help you to write sermons and preach the word of God. Hallelujah.

Gold star.

And maybe you will also be able to meet new people, including girls, and that will help you to stop having sinful thoughts about the person you are never supposed to think about ever again.

Red star.

You return to typing the email to Mrs. Clara Shuster.

When male and female interpreters comes to Abilities Institute they will recognize ME since I will be ONLY 23-year-old MAN with a WHITE cane and DOG who does NOT look up when Interpreters CALLS OUT NAME. Again JOKE. (Big Smile) DARK HUMOR. I am not RUDE MAN. Of course I DEAFBLIND. HA HA HA. Please tell all interpreters I DO NOT LIKE SWEATY HANDS or bad breath or too much perfume which stings my nose.

Before, when you were small, everyone at the Kingdom Hall was taller than you, so your head would come up to their chest and shoulders. They always smelled like armpit. Now you smell the tops of their heads, which smell like hair cream, shampoo, or dust.

You like short people better than tall people.

Mama was short. Molly is short. Your old friends from the Rose Garden School, Big Head Lawrence and Martin, were short. Martin also had lots of fat on his body. (You also like fat people.) The person-who-you-are-not-allowed-to-remember was also short, but thin, with black eyes, thick black hair, and smelled like...

Quiet! Quiet, stupid brain! Quiet!

Red star.

Down at the Kingdom Hall hearing members will do very basic Tactile Sign Language with you, so if they ever meet another DeafBlind man they will know how to talk to him about Jehovah God. Some of the girls take a very long time to spell their names and mix up the letters. Sometimes they let their hands linger longer in yours than is proper, and you’ll let your own hand wander up to their wrists. And that’s when things get different inside you. Sometimes, if they have nice hands—soft, smooth, expressive, not sweaty—you ask them to fingerspell their names a second time even though you understood the first time. You’ll pull their hands in a little closer, so you can feel the warmth of their bodies. You’ll inhale their perfume, powder, skin, breath. Then sometimes you daydream about asking the girls to put their fingers inside their soft place, the way you-know-who did, and let you smell them.

Red star.

You pray again to Jehovah God: Please, Jehovah God, let me stop having sinful thoughts every five minutes. Please let me take Brother Birch’s kind and loving advice to “Not be like Lot’s Wife and look back at the past”—especially about you-know-who—and please let me be a spiritually strong man and servant to you and your son, Jesus Christ.

You take a deep breath and finish writing the letter to Mrs. Clara Shuster:

Let BOTH interpreters with HIGH SKILLS know my old GUIDE DOG is name “SNAP”... (SNAP FINGERS is name). She is old secondhand guide dog. She do not BITE a lot. But tell interpreters with HIGH SKILLS NOT to BANG BANG on table to show they am HERE. SNAP does not like it and BARK ANGRY. GASP. GULP. Embarrass! Better way, gently TAP on my shoulder, and hold, do not move so don’t LOSE YOU. After that I will interview potential INTERPRETERS and then pick one to work with me and Molly this summer. Okay?

Thank you for all helping me so much. I am very exciting going to WRITING CLASS at Dutchess Community College. I promise work very hard and get good grades so Brother Birch, Jehovah God, and you WILL HAVE be proud with me.

Blessings and Hugs,

Your friend

Arlo Dilly

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