The author Bella Bathurst discusses Sound: A Memoir of Hearing Lost and Found (Greystone, 2018), what she learned about life when she gradually lost her hearing, and how she got it back, with Joseph Planta.

Sound: A Memoir of Hearing Lost and Found by Bella Bathurst (Greystone, 2018). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Sound

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, at TheCommentary.ca.

One of the more remarkable books is Sound: A Memoir of Hearing Lost and Found. Its author Bella Bathurst joins me now. At the age of 27, she began to go deaf. She’d suffered two separate injuries from accidents and soon she was losing her hearing. For 12 years thereafter, being deaf shaped her life, until everything changed again. The book is marvelous in how she takes us through her hearing loss, how she is forced to confront it, and how she deals with it. She illustrates in a very sensory way just how much is lost in daily experience when hearing is diminished or gone. Ms. Bathurst also interviews factory workers, soldiers, musicians, as well as others whose work may have a detrimental effect on hearing. Bella Bathurst is a writer, photojournalist, and furniture maker. She has written four previous books of nonfiction, including The Lighthouse Stevensons, which won the Somerset Maugham Award. Her novel Special was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Her writing has appeared in the Guardian, and the Observer, among many other publications. This new book is published by Greystone Books. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Bella Bathurst; Ms. Bathurst, good morning.

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