The Sign for Drowning
Written by Rachel Stolzman
Format: Hardcover
Category: Fiction
Publisher: Trumpeter Books
Pub Date: June 2008
Page Count: 208
ISBN: 978-1-59030-587-4
Price: $19.95
Reading Group Guide
1. As a child, Anna connects the underwater silence of her sister’s drowning with the inability to hear, and subsequently she uses sign language to communicate with her. How does the
significance of this connection grow in the novel? What other aspects of Anna’s life represent
deafness and breaking through silence?
2. What conflicts arise for Anna around raising Adrea?
3. Is it coincidental that Anna adopts a child the same age her sister was at the time of her
death? Why should Anna be wary of this?
4. How does the theme of impermanence shape the novel and the characters’ journeys?
5. How are speech and lip-reading represented in the Deaf community in this novel? And how
does Anna’s point of view on these issues change during the novel?
6. How is The Little Prince used as a parallel tale in the story?
7. In what ways does Adrea change Anna’s future? Does Adrea free Anna from her past?
8. Does forgiveness occur in the story for Anna? For her mother? As readers and humans do
we need forgiveness in order to accept things as they are?
9. Anna experiences an important epiphany toward the end of the book, starting in Bonnie’s
backyard while watching a young child struggling to climb, and concluding in the final pages.
What was this epiphany?
About the Author
Rachel Stolzman received her MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College. Her
writing has won several awards. She studied sign language and worked with deaf people
when she was writing The Sign for Drowning. This is her first novel.
An Interview with Rachel Stolzman
What inspired you to write this novel?
When I was doing my MFA in creative writing, I wrote a short story that was basically the prologue of The Sign for Drowning. For a while I thought it was a complete short story and my curiosity was satisfied, but then I started imagining what happened to the family in the aftermath,
especially to the sister, Anna. I began exploring it through writing but remained tentative as to
whether there was a larger story there. It was when I came up with the character of Adrea and
I decided that Anna would adopt a deaf child as an outcome of this childhood loss, that I really
became convinced to write the novel.
What inspired you to write a book with a deaf character?
While I was doing my MFA and writing this novel, I was taking American Sign Language (ASL)
classes for the fun of it. As I got to know my narrator, Anna, I saw her as a woman who was
broken and who had not recovered from the childhood loss of her sister and her family’s dissolution afterwards. Anna was missing a sense, so to speak. From there it was a leap of imagination that she could have believed that she could speak to her missing sister through sign
language and that as an adult she could become a teacher for the deaf and adopt a deaf child.
Do you have connections with the Deaf community?
I did learn ASL while writing the book and that led to a job working with deaf people for several years. While working with the deaf, I was told lots of great personal stories and I was
exposed to Deaf culture and some of the historical controversies I try to portray in the book.
The scenes between Anna and Megan are very moving, not only because of the
tragedy of Megan’s death, but because they feel so real. Is that relationship modeled after people in your life?
I dedicated the book to my sister, Dana. We were very close as children and still are. The playfulness and togetherness I gave to Anna and Megan comes from my early memories of always
being with my sister. The prologue, when Megan drowns, is based on a near tragedy involving
my sister. She was washed out of a little boat in the ocean and was underwater for several minutes. My family did spend a lot of time at the beach, and my sister taught me to swim out far
beyond the breaks, which used to scare me.
What is your technique for capturing the dialogue and the gestures of intimacy?
It’s hard to say. Adrea was the easiest character for me to write. I imagined her as very active;
she was always doing something and giving Anna things to react to. Their intimacy became a
catalyst for change for Anna, and therefore I kept finding more meaning in their interactions
and relationship.
How would you like your readers to feel after they finish the book?
I know it’s a very sad book, but my intention is that it could leave the reader uplifted. At some
point I think most of us are challenged by the ephemeral and impermanent nature of life, and
that is Anna’s big struggle. But at the end of the novel, she even comes to see the beauty and
rightness in that.