Only I Can Hear

"I've always wanted to be deaf," says 15-year-old Nyla. She's the only hearing person in her family going back five generations and views her ability to hear as both a gift and a curse. Itaru Matsui and Heath Cozens weave together the fascinating experiences of four children of deaf adults—also known as CODAs—and the challenges and joys they face living between these two worlds. Their stories overlap at a summer camp for CODAs where they find acceptance and understanding from a community of others like them. For the first time in many of their lives, they meet others who bear the responsibility of being family translators and have parents who feel left out or discriminated against. With incredible compassion and curiosity, Matsui and Cozens navigate the margins of the hearing and deaf world, finding acceptance in a society that privileges the spoken word.
(Vivian Belik)