Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening

Blind people are not casual listeners. Blind since birth, Stephen Kuusisto recounts with a poets sense of detail the surprise that comes when we are actively listening to our surroundings. There is an art to eavesdropping. Like Annie Dillards <em>An American Childhood</em> or Dorothy Allisons <em>One or Two Things I Know for Sure</em>, Kuusistos memoir highlights periods of childhood when a writer first becomes aware of his curiosity and imagination. As a boy he listened to Caruso records in his grandmothers attic and spent hours in the New Hampshire woods learning the calls of birds. As a grown man the writer visits cities around the world in order to discover the art of sightseeing by ear. Whether the reader is interested in disability, American poetry, music, travel, or the art of eavesdropping, he or she will find much to hear and even "see" in this unique celebration of a hearing life.