Deaf Republic, by Ilya Kaminsky (National Book Award Finalist)

Finalist for the National Book Award for PoetryFinalist for the PEN/Jean Stein AwardFinalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for PoetryWinner of the National Jewish Book Award for PoetryFinalist for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry AwardFinalist for theLos Angeles TimesBook PrizeFinalist for the T. S. Eliot PrizeFinalist for the Forward Prize for Best Collection

Ilya Kaminskys astonishing parable in poems asks us, What is silence?

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 hearthey 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 Galyas 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 Kaminskys long-awaitedDeaf Republicconfronts our times vicious atrocities and our collective silence in the face of them.