Microreview 27 (2025)

 

Jellyfish Have No Ears by Adele Rosenfeld, translated by Jeffery Zuckerman (McLehose Press)

This was an interesting read, and while I don't think that it will feature in my top 10 books of the year it will be hovering just outside...

The book is about a young woman who has had hearing problems for years but suddenly these have worsened and she is becoming profoundly deaf. She is told, however, that some of her hearing can be saved if she has a cochlear implant.

Louise has always felt adrift between communities: not deaf enough to be a part of Deaf culture, not hearing enough to be fully within the hearing world. Hearing, for Louise, is inseparable from reading other people's lips. Through sight, she perceives words and strings them together like pearls to reconstruct a conversation.

Then an audiology exam shows that most of her hearing has gone, and her doctor suggests a cochlear implant. With this irreversible intervention, Louise would gain a new, synthetic sense of hearing - but she would lose what remains of her natural hearing, which has shaped her unique relationship with the world, full of whispers and shadows.

As she weighs the prospect of surgery, she must also contend with the chaotic reality of her life as she falls in love, suffers through her first job, and steadies herself with friends.

A masterclass in wordplay and language's possibilities and limitations, this fiercely original debut plunges readers into Louise's world as she grapples with loss, and considers what she might gain in the process.

I found the book to be an immersive read into the life of someone wrestling with the decision regarding undertaking treatment that will be life changing - and possibly not all in a positive way.

However the reason that I have been thinking about this book so much since finishing is that I realise it is in fact a double translation. 

As well as Zuckerman having to tackle the translation from French - including making all of the very clever wordplay work, the book has also had to try to translate the experience of being D/deaf in the real world to non hearing impaired readers. While this book is only the protagonist's experience of the latter I felt like I had a much better understanding of the struggles faced in day to day life in France and the alienation not being 'normal' causes.

It came as no surprise to read that both the author and translator are deaf - I think that this must make a difference from a hearing person writing a deaf character.