A Sign of Her Own

The vivid historical novel of a Deaf woman's role in the invention of the telephone

By: Sarah Marsh

Narrated by: Fannie Marion

An empowering story of a young woman's journey to accepting her deaf identity, exploring the hidden history of the deaf community in the invention of the telephone

Ellen Lark is on the verge of marriage when she and her fiancé receive an unexpected visit from Alexander Graham Bell.

While her fiancé is eager to make a potentially lucrative acquaintance, Ellen knows what Bell really wants from her. Ellen is deaf, and for a time was Bell's student in a technique called Visible Speech. As he instructed her in speaking, Bell also confided in her about his dream of producing a device which would transmit the human voice along a wire: the telephone. Now, on the cusp of wealth and renown, Bell wants Ellen to speak up in support of his claim to the patent to the telephone, which is being challenged by rivals.

But Ellen has a different story to tell: that of how Bell betrayed her, and other deaf pupils, in pursuit of ambition and personal gain, and cut Ellen off from a community in which she had come to feel truly at home. It is a story no one around Ellen seems to want to hear - but there may never be a more important time for her to tell it.

A Sign of Her Own offers a fascinating window onto a hidden moment in history, and a portrait of a young deaf woman's journey to find her place in the world, and her own authentic voice.

©2024 Sarah Marsh (P)2024 Headline Publishing Group Ltd

Critic reviews

'A Sign of Her Own shines a light into a hidden corner of history. Ellen Lark's story is one that will resonate with anyone who has struggled to fit in. A fantastic novel.' (Louise Hare, author of This Lovely City and Miss Aldridge Regrets)

'An accomplished debut that excellently conveys the experience of being deaf in a hearing world. A Sign of Her Own gives a fascinating insight into a moment in history when the invention of the telephone was poised to connect countless people, yet deaf communities were being silenced by a movement against the use of sign language. [A]bsorbing and illuminating.' (Priscilla Morris, author of Black Butterflies)

"Not since reading Helen Keller's A Story of My Life have I read such an evocative description on what it is like to be deaf. Sarah Marsh's A Sign of Her Own is a passionate and uncompromising story of the difficulties Deaf people face, and it doesn't shy away from the sometimes challenging politics of Deafness and Deaf Community." (Laura Shepperson, author of THE HEROINES)