"This book will shake your preconceptions about the deaf, about language and about thought--. Sacks (is) one of the finest and most thoughtful writers of our time."--"Los Angeles Times Book Review" Like The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, this is a fascinating voyage into a strange and wonderful land, a provocative meditation on communication, biology, adaptation, and culture. In Seeing Voices, Oliver Sacks turns his attention to the subject of deafness, and the result is a deeply felt portrait of a minority struggling for recognition and respect--a minority with its own rich, sometimes astonishing, culture and unique visual language, an extraordinary mode of communication that tells us much about the basis of language in hearing people as well. Seeing Voices is, as Studs Terkel has written, "an exquisite, as well as revelatory, work."

"Fascinating and richly rewarding. Sacks is a profoundly wise observer."Cleveland Plain Dealer

"One cannot read more than a few pages of Sacks without seeing something in a new way. His breadth of understanding and expression seems limitless." Kansas City Star

"A remarkable book, penetrating, subtle, persuasive. [It] will likely become a classic." St. Louis Post-Dispatch

In Seeing Voices "one of the great clinical writers of the 20th century" (New York Times Book Review) turns his attention to the subject of deafness, and the result is a beautiful and immensely moving book, one that not only takes us into the world of the deaf but offers a deeply felt portrait of a minority struggling for recognition and respect". Seeing Voices opens with a history of the deaf, tracing their courageous battle for acceptance in a hearing world, and goes on to consider ASL, the extraordinary mode of communication that has wide-ranging implications for the hearing as well. Finally, Dr. Sacks examines the uprising of deaf students at Gallaudet University and considers its impact on a new generation of deaf children. Like The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Seeing Voices is a fascinating voyage into a strange and wonderful land, a provocative meditation on communication, biology, and culture.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [197]-213) and index.

Oliver Sacks lives in New York City.