Deaf Republic Poems
Finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry Ilya Kaminsky’s astonishing parable in poems asks us, What is silence? Deaf Republic opens in an occupied country in a time of political unrest. When soldiers breaking up a protest kill a deaf boy, Petya, the gunshot becomes the last thing the citizens hear—they all have gone deaf, and their dissent becomes coordinated by sign language. The story follows the private lives of townspeople encircled by public violence: a newly married couple, Alfonso and Sonya, expecting a child; the brash Momma Galya, instigating the insurgency from her puppet theater; and Galya’s girls, heroically teaching signing by day and by night luring soldiers one by one to their deaths behind the curtain. At once a love story, an elegy, and an urgent plea, Ilya Kaminsky’s long-awaited Deaf Republic confronts our time’s vicious atrocities and our collective silence in the face of them.
Reviews
Cait🪼@figs0up
azliana aziz@heartinidleness
Alyanna@alyanna
🤍@sorawinter
erin moran @ernmrn
Arden Kowalski@jonimitchell
Athena Eloy@athenaeloy
CM@saintachoo
Nadia@nadiaj
Lindsay@schnurln
ellis@ellis
shirley kaleen@shirleysversion
Emma Bose@emmashanti
Sonia Grgas@sg911911
JoAnna@lilipuddingdog
Lena@heliois
angela@qngel126
Ana Hein@anahein99
Jacob Mishook@jmishook
mighty dragon @naga
Katja@amnesia
nina@oldbint
Tamara Al-Qaisi-Coleman@tamaraalqaisi
Nat Lim@littlemissmaudlin
Highlights
tangerine@taesleaf
Lindsay@schnurln
Lindsay@schnurln
Lindsay@schnurln
Lindsay@schnurln
Lindsay@schnurln
Lindsay@schnurln
Lindsay@schnurln
Lindsay@schnurln
Lindsay@schnurln
Lindsay@schnurln
Lindsay@schnurln
Lindsay@schnurln