by Diane Cole
Listening in on two worlds
What does it mean to have a voice, to hear a voice, to give voice in public to private thoughts? Those questions carry particular significance for Jennifer Rosner, the hearing mother of two daughters who were born deaf. In her unusual and affecting parenting memoir, If a Tree Falls: A Family’s Quest to Hear and Be Heard ($16.95), part of the Feminist Press’ Reuben/Rifkin Jewish Women Writers Series, Rosner grapples with practical medical issues while also pondering her family’s history of silence and secrecy.