My enormous thanks to Caitlin Raynor for sending me a copy of A Sign of Her Own by Sarah Marsh all those months ago and to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting me to participate in the blog tour for the book. It’s my pleasure to share my review today.

A Sign of Her Own was published by Tinder Press on 1st February 2024 and is available for purchase through the publisher links here.

A Sign of Her Own

Ellen Lark is on the verge of marriage when she and her fiancé receive an unexpected visit from Alexander Graham Bell.

Ellen knows immediately what Bell really wants from her. Ellen is deaf, and for a time was Bell’s student in a technique called Visible Speech. As he instructed her in speaking, Bell also confided in her about his dream of producing a device which would transmit the human voice along a wire: the telephone. Now, on the cusp of wealth and renown, Bell wants Ellen to speak up in support of his claim to the patent to the telephone, which is being challenged by rivals.

But Ellen has a different story to tell: that of how Bell betrayed her, and other deaf pupils, in pursuit of ambition and personal gain, and cut Ellen off from a community in which she had come to feel truly at home. It is a story no one around Ellen seems to want to hear – but there may never be a more important time for her to tell it.

My Review of A Sign of Her Own

Ellen Lark is under pressure.

A Sign of Her Own is a remarkable story, steeped in history, that is beautifully written. I found Ellen’s profoundly deaf communications fascinating because Sarah Marsh’s style places the reader right inside Ellen’s head, making them part of her experience almost first hand. I don’t know if it is because the author is herself deaf, but her writing has such effective observation that it is somehow both poetic and accessible. I loved this style as it has a kind of filmic quality. 

Indeed, I found the structure of interspersing Ellen’s adult life with earlier glimpses into her childhood highly effective, because the reader slowly gains understanding of Ellen’s experiences and how they have shaped her, in the same way Ellen herself gains understanding of the world around her and how far she might trust others –  or not. Ellen’s auditory challenges and triumphs are echoed by the reader’s gradual learning about her life as the story unfolds. Her journey of self-discovery is profound, moving and engaging. 

Other than his connection to the invention of the telephone I had absolutely no knowledge of Alexander Graham Bell prior to reading A Sign of Her Own. This is one of the triumphs of Sarah Marsh’s characterisation. She has obviously researched her subject meticulously and blends fact and fiction skilfully throughout, making for a fascinating read. In Bell we have a flawed, complex man whom it isn’t always easy to like or admire. This makes him realistic and human. Through Bell’s strand there’s a convincing sense of history and the development of technology with the rivalries and corruption that process can engender woven into his part of the story that feels equally relevant to today’s society. 

However, the real triumph of the book for me was Sarah Marsh’s exploration of theme. Whilst helping the reader to gain some insight into deafness and the prejudice and difficulty deaf people have encountered, I found A Sign of Her Own a profoundly feminist read as Ellen takes control of her life, learning whom to trust and how to make her own decisions. I was enraged by the fact that it is not just men who attempt to manipulate her to their own ends so that betrayal felt very close to the surface throughout. Through Ellen and A Sign of Her Own the reader comes to understand others better, to give value to experiences that may not match the reader’s own and to appreciate the importance of communication.

I thought A Sign of Her Own was engaging, entertaining, convincing and thought-provoking and thoroughly enjoyed it.  

About Sarah Marsh

Sarah Marsh was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish prize in 2019 and selected for the London Library Emerging Writers programme in 2020. A Sign of Her Own is her first novel, inspired by her experiences of growing up deaf and her family’s history of deafness. She lives in London.

For further information about Sarah, you can follow her on Twitter/X @SarahCMarsh or find her on Instagram.

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