A Sign of Her Own

DEBUT Briton Marsh’s beautifully written debut unfolds the story of Ellen Lark in a series of flashbacks. After Ellen loses her hearing from scarlet fever in mid-1800s New England, she and her family communicate with their own “home signs,” as well as lip reading, which Ellen learns at Oral School. Eventually confronted with the Visible Speech method at Professor Alexander Graham Bell’s School of Oratory at Boston University, Ellen strives to please her charismatic professor by learning to speak using his system. Bell often shares with her his ideas for new inventions, such as the telephone. But when Bell begins neglecting his students, Ellen questions his methods and the motivations for both his invention and Visible Speech. Years later, Bell asks Ellen to publicly support him when a rival inventor contests his claim to the telephone. Speaking against Bell could destroy the life Ellen has built, but supporting him could suppress the voice she has worked hard to claim as her own.