Description

Longlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize

When a young DeafBlind man learns the girl he thought was lost forever might still be out there he embarks on a lifechanging journey to find herand his freedom

Arlo Dilly is young handsome and eager to meet the right girl He also happens to be DeafBlind a Jehovahs Witness and under the strict guardianship of his controlling uncle His chances of finding someone to love seem slim to none

And yet it happened once before many years ago at a boarding school for the Deaf Arlo met the love of his lifea mysterious girl with onyx eyes and beautifully expressive hands which told him the most amazing stories But tragedy struck and their love was lost forever

Or so Arlo thought

After years trying to heal his broken heart Arlo is assigned a college writing assignment which unlocks buried memories of his past Soon he wonders if the hearing people he was supposed to trust have been lying to him all along and if his lost love might be found again

No longer willing to accept what others tell him Arlo convinces a small band of misfit friends to set off on a journey to learn the truth After all who better to bring on this quest than his gay interpreter and wildly inappropriate Belgian best friend Despite the many forces working against him Arlo will stop at nothing to find the girl who got away and experience all of lifes joyful possibilities