"The silence of the world", the diversity of being deaf in the new novel by Tommaso Avati

A family and its history from the era of fascism to the present day. At the center of everything three women: Rosa, Laura and Francesca their names. They are grandmother, mother and daughter and what they have in common is the fact that they are all deaf. Rosa, however, is a woman of ancient times and a peasant. His language is that of the things he touches, a vigorous and sanguine tongue. Archaic. A language that will put her in difficulty in the face of an increasingly civilized world, which Rosa will have a hard time understanding. His daughter Laura, on the other hand, grows up in the city, knows and masters the language of the people around her. While governing it, however, that language does not belong to her completely and Laura will have to realize it, painfully. Finally, there is Francesca, a woman of today who speaks everyone's language. Use sophisticated, alternative codes. Will this language be enough to ward off the anxiety of the world that progressively assails it?

Book in which gestures replace words and listening is a faculty that must be reinvented day after day "The silence of the world" (Neri Pozza, 2022, pp. 240, also e-book) tells us about the diversity of being deaf and consequent, painful complexity of communicating. A story that the author, Tommaso Avati, realizes with the delicacy and awareness of those who have experienced deafness on their own skin and know deeply what it means to grow up and live in a muffled world, never really reachable even for those who are you. closer and dearer.

We ask Tommaso Avati what is the "silence of the world" which gives the book its title:

“The silence of the world is a state of mind. For me, the silence of the world no longer exists, it was linked to my childhood and early adolescence, to a remote era in which the absence of sounds was normal, it was not stigmatized, it represented neither a problem nor a scandal, it simply corresponded to my somewhat special world. The silence of the world is the emotional state to which the three protagonists of the novel try to relate when they realize that, despite everything, the daily noise risks reaching them and overwhelming them ".

Why choosing a female novel?

“The theme of diversity and deafness in particular seemed to me to be better suited to a female figure. It is as if women have a particular affinity for listening, as if depriving a woman, and often a mother, of the ability to hear were somehow more serious than depriving a man. In short, it seemed to me that telling my problem, that of deafness, enriching it with female sensitivity was the best way to do it justice, to fully address it. If I had imagined a male protagonist I would have ended up recognizing myself in him, identifying myself too much and I didn't want to. Instead, I wanted to be free to tell a story that resembled me more than any other, without, however, the conditioning that one inevitably undergoes when writing a strictly autobiographical story ".

How are the three protagonists of the book different and how are they similar?

“They are different because they come from different eras. But they are especially so in the way of dealing with diversity itself. Above all Francesca, the youngest, is the one who would like to inaugurate a new relationship with the world of hearing, with people so called normal. She would like to try to stop the hostilities her mother and grandmother have stubbornly carried on all along. He would like to try to forget the pain, the suffering, the marginalization from which the women of his family have been affected ... ".

What does it mean to you to be deaf?

“Being deaf means being familiar with silence, it means being used to living in that world. Knowing the total absence of sounds means practicing a privileged existential possibility, which for me ended brutally and traumatically, when I had to put on the prosthesis. Being deaf also means being inevitably handicapped, therefore deprived of one of the fundamental senses. Not hearing who is speaking to you undermines the roots of being together, of communication. A deaf and untreated, untreated, unrecognized child runs the risk of bearing indelible scars. In short, being deaf is both a gift and a damage ”.