The House With All The Lights On

If I were to tell you our story in sign language—the story of my grandparents and me—I’d begin with a single finger touching my chest.

Jessica Kirkness has traversed the boundary between deaf and hearing cultures all her life. Her memoir tells the story of her grandparents, who grew up deaf in a hearing world—one where sign language was banned for much of the twentieth century—and weaves in her own experience as a hearing child in a family that often struggled to navigate their elders' difference.

This journey takes her from the family home to the workplaces of research audiologists and back to England, where she visits her grandparents' old schools and other family landmarks—discovering along the way how terribly their deafness has been misunderstood.

The House With All The Lights On captures the universal experience of navigating complex family relationships and beautifully explores the nuances of identity in what is both a memoir and a love letter to those closest to her heart.

An elegant and empathic love letter to family. Fiona Murphy, author of The Shape of Sound

A sensory window into Deaf gain and other complexities of our community. Asphyxia, author of Future Girl

Kirkness tells a moving, artful story about how we seek to understand our grandparents, and how they become the frame through which we see the world. Andrew Pippos, author of Lucky’s