True Biz cover image

True Biz

A Novel

 Listen to a sample

Get 30 days of Standard free

€6.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for €0.00
More purchase options

True Biz

By: Sara Novic
Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan, Kaleo Griffith
Try for €0.00

€6.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for €16.79

Buy Now for €16.79

Season's Savings | 0.99 €/mo for 3 months

6.99 €/month thereafter - terms apply. Cancel monthly.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • A “tender, beautiful and radiantly outraged” (The New York Times Book Review) novel that follows a year of seismic romantic, political, and familial shifts for a teacher and her students at a boarding school for the deaf, from the acclaimed author of Girl at War

“This important novel should—true biz—change minds and transform the conversation.”—Maile Meloy, The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: NPR, The Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, Booklist

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. Coming of Age Genre Fiction
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
All stars
Most relevant
I loved that they had someone signing whenever people used ASL. I liked the topic and the writing. The ending was good, although left quite open

Use of ASL 👌

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What a great Story with relatable characters and a powerful message! Also very educational for me. I will soon study to become an interpreter for DGS (german sign language) and this was the perfect book for me to get a sense of deaf history and culture. Thank you for this, Sara!

I learned so much!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.