The Sign for Home: A Novel

Blair Fell

Apr 2022 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

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.

Ratings and reviews

The Unfair World of Being Deaf-Blind The reader is brought into the world of being deaf and blind. Our Main Character loses his sight over time but was born deaf. He loses his mother at an early age and is brought up in a strictly religious atmosphere. When he is finally allowed to take a writing class at a local community college, he discovers all the lies he has been told. The young deaf-blind are completely vulnerable to their guardians for everything, and even at age 23, our main character is totally dependent. Once he steps out of that door, there is no going back. I have not read a book that has hit me on so many levels in a very long time. Anger, frustration, joy, awe, guilt, love, there are not many emotions not felt as the story progresses. The reader is introduced to deaf-blind communication and how much technology has improved it since the days of Helen Keller. The author has a smooth style which makes the story move quickly. This could become a blockbuster movie about a subject rarely talked about. I highly recommend this book and this author.

About the author

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.