Brian Birnbaum – USA based CODA – releases his debut novel ‘Emerald City’ this week!

Emerald City is released this September 15th by Animal Riot Press (formerly called Dead Rabbits publishers.) The author, Brian Birnbaum is an only Child of Deaf Adults (CODA) who grew up in Baltimore and told us in his author’s notes how being a hearing child to deaf adults gave him an understanding very early on of what it means to struggle and the frustrations he felt having to alternate between American Sign Language and English.

Brian worked on Emerald City for six years and the result is a thrilling tale which melds deaf culture, organised crime and family drama. Set in Seattle, Emerald City is a gritty, grown up novel with tough, feisty characters.

The plot tells the story of Benison Behrenreich, the hearing son of deaf royalty. Benison lands a sought after spot on a basketball team, only after his powerful father – CEO of a multimillion dollar deaf access agency – has bribed them.

We also meet Julia Paolantonio whose Mother has sent her off to live with her Grandad, Johnny Raciti. Julia has recently lost her Father due to his drug addiction, and so her Grandad Johnny offers to give Julia’s vulnerable Mother a board seat on his corrupt security firm – but only if Julia can find Peter Fosch, a college drop out and renowned drug runner.

Meanwhile, Benison’s Father is arrested for defrauding government subsidies for the deaf, leaving the entire Behrenreich family vulnerable to the company’s ruthless backers, one of whom is actually Johnny Raciti!

We see the aftermath of this as Julia and Peter attempt to navigate the minefield of contracts and mob politics and how Benison struggles to compensate for his Father’s sins.

What’s so interesting for me throughout this story is how deafness and deaf issues are interweaved effortlessly. There’s a real depiction of modern stigmas that are attached to deafness and how its easier to cover it up or overcompensate for it.

There are hints of street attitudes towards hearing aids and how such clunky technology doesn’t belong in our ‘cool’ lifestyles anymore. “How are you supposed to meet a girl with that thing attached to your f****** ear?” Even at the dinner table, a father comments how a hearing aid makes his son “look mentally disabled.”

Rather than being intentionally offensive, the writing very cleverly highlights common attitudes and fears among families when it comes to raising deaf kids. We meet two characters in particular, Marc and Allen. Allen is ‘Deaf’ and attends a deaf school whereas Marc is in denial about his deafness, pretending to understand customers at the market he works at. Marc hides his lip reading struggles, wears a sleek hidden aid and so Allen taunts him “at least my parents don’t think I’m hearing!”

We also see how Marc is refused entry to a deaf school, despite struggling at the mainstream school he’s at. The reason being he is not ‘deaf enough.’ Entry to the school requires a decibel loss of 70 but our character only has a 65 decibel loss. We see his parents yell and even exclaim “I told you already: he’s not Deaf!”

It’s was refreshing to read a tale where the characters felt familiar because of the references to deafness, sign language and hearing aids.

I especially loved how the signed dialogue was written in italics and it even offered visual descriptions, so those who know ASL can visualise the signs as they’re reading.

Where are you going? Ellen wagged an index.
Marc pivoted a cursory L, I’ll be back later.

There is a ghetto feeling to the story, with curse words a plenty and a real feeling of struggle between the characters. It’s incredibly well written and actually innovative in the way it used real life fraud experiences amongst deaf organisations as inspiration for the novel. The result is a fine example of how the deaf community isn’t all pure and innocent, its just as varied as hearing society.

Whilst reading the novel, I was reminded of a Netflix series I enjoyed in which there are rival gangs, loveable characters with filthy mouths, and a fight for authority. So what I would love to see next is Emerald City on screen. And why not? It has a fantastic storyline, gripping twists, a real down and dirty gritty feel and best of all – an authentic reference to the deaf community.

But first of all, go and get the book for yourself. Immerse yourself in a tale of corruptness and politics, and brush up on your ASL along the way. Isn’t it such a rare find to find a great novel with real deaf characters?!

I take my hat off to Animal Riots Press on this exciting release and send a huge congratulations to Brian Birnbaum on penning such a magnetic, unique novel. I look forward to seeing what the future brings!

Brian works in development for his Father’s deaf access company. An MFA graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, his work has been published in The Smart Set, The Collagist, Atticus Review, SLAM magazine, Lit Hub, Political Animal and more. Visit him at www.briansbirnbaum.com
Find him on twitter at @brianburnbomb

Animal Riot Press can be found at https://www.animalriotpress.com/