A Novel
Willy Conley
October 2015
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$19.95t print edition $19.95 e-book
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“Willy Conley’s debut novel, The Deaf Heart, offers a fascinating, episodic look at one deaf young man’s journey to become a professional biomedical photographer in what always will be a hearing world. Conley draws on his own background—as a playwright, photographer and member of the deaf community—to offer an insightful look into the effort that any person with a ‘difference’ must make, not only to overcome obstacles and prejudice, but also to help others ultimately appreciate our universal humanity.”
“Willy Conley’s novel is rich and gripping, handsomely capturing the deaf aspect of human experience.”
“The essence of Conley’s insightful writing involving ‘the Deaf experience’ clearly comes from the heart of a photographer and playwright, and one who happens to be deaf. It is moving and sometimes funny.”
“Willy Conley achieves a deeply personal, memoir-like quality in his fiction. You will be taken to a little known world that opens your eyes and makes you cherish your ears.”
“The triumph of The Deaf Heart is that Willy Conley doesn’t give us insight into the life of the Deaf but into the life of a highly specific and endearingly real Deaf person. Max is a smart, wryly funny, openhearted character who spends his days as a medical photographer and his off-hours gleefully exploring Galveston, Texas, from its upper crust to its seedy underbelly, with a cast of vividly drawn sidekicks. Their adventures will make you laugh, break your heart, and make you see—and hear—your own world in a new way.”
Told through a series of quirky, irreverent short stories and letters home during the early 1980s, The Deaf Heart chronicles a year in the life of Dempsey “Max” McCall, a Deaf biomedical photography resident at a teaching hospital on the island of Galveston, Texas. Max strives to become certified as a Registered Biological Photographer while straddling the deaf and hearing worlds. He befriends Reynaldo, an impoverished Deaf Mexican, and they go on a number of unusual escapades around the island.
At the hospital, Max has to contend with hearing doctors, nurses, scientists, and teachers. While struggling through the rigors of his residency and running into bad luck in meeting women, Max discovers an ally in his hearing housemate Zag, a fellow resident who is also vying for certification. Toward the end of his residency, Max meets Maddy, a Deaf woman who helps bring balance to his life.
Author Willy Conley’s stories, some humorous, some poignant, reveal Max’s struggles and triumphs as he attempts to succeed in the hearing world while at the same time navigating the multicultural and linguistic diversity within the Deaf world.
Willy Conley is a professor of Theatre and Dance in the Department of Art, Communication, and Theatre at Gallaudet University.
Print Edition: ISBN 978-1-56368-603-0, 5½ x 8½ paperback, 232 pages, 20 photographs
$19.95t
E-Book: ISBN 978-1-56368-604-7
$19.95
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