Deaf Republic: Poems, by Ilia Kaminsky

“The product of 15 years of meditation, this chilling work–an important warning about the forces of repression and a quiet salute to the courage of the few who resist–heralds the maturity of an important voice in world poetry.”–Library Journal, starred review

Deaf Republicopens 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-awaitedDeaf Republicconfronts our time’s vicious atrocities and our collective silence in the face of them.

March 5, 2019