Reading Across Rhode Island 2023 Author Event with Sara Novic

Join Rhode Island Center for the Book for an in-person event with Sara Novic, author of True Biz, on Thursday, April 27 at 7:00 p.m!

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Free and open to the public. American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters will be present. Books will be available for sale. Click to register.

I’m thrilled and honored that True Biz has been chosen as this year’s Reading Across Rhode Island pick. I like to call this book a coming-of-age story and a coming-of-middle-age story, so I think it has something for everybody, and I’m looking forward to connecting with RI readers. – Sara Novic

About the book

True biz (adj./exclamation; American Sign Language): really, seriously, definitely, real-talk

True biz? The students at the River Valley School for the Deaf just want to hook up, pass their history finals, and have politicians, doctors, and their parents stop telling them what to do with their bodies. This revelatory novel plunges readers into the halls of a residential school for the deaf, where they’ll meet Charlie, a rebellious transfer student who’s never met another deaf person before; Austin, the school’s golden boy, whose world is rocked when his baby sister is born hearing; and February, the hearing headmistress, a CODA (child of deaf adult(s)) who is fighting to keep her school open and her marriage intact, but might not be able to do both. As a series of crises both personal and political threaten to unravel each of them, Charlie, Austin, and February find their lives inextricable from one another—and changed forever.

This is a story of sign language and lip-reading, disability and civil rights, isolation and injustice, first love and loss, and, above all, great persistence, daring, and joy. Absorbing and assured, idiosyncratic and relatable, this is an unforgettable journey into the Deaf community and a universal celebration of human connection.

About the Author

Sara Nović holds an MFA from Columbia University, where she studied fiction and literary translation. Her first novel, Girl at War, won the American Library Association’s Alex Award, and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her most recent novel, True Biz, is a New York Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick. She is an instructor of Deaf studies and creative writing, and lives in Philadelphia with her family.

Sara Nović wesbsite: https://sara-novic.com/