TRUE BIZ

*New York Times Bestseller * Reese’s Book Club * NYTBR Editor’s Choice * BOTM April Pick * ALA Alex Award Winner

True biz (adj./exclamation; American Sign Language): really, seriously, definitely, real-talk

True biz? The students at the River Valley School for the Deaf just want to hook up, pass their history finals, and have politicians, doctors, and their parents stop telling them what to do with their bodies. This revelatory novel plunges readers into the halls of a residential school for the deaf, where they’ll meet Charlie, a rebellious transfer student who’s never met another deaf person before; Austin, the school’s golden boy, whose world is rocked when his baby sister is born hearing; and February, the headmistress, who is fighting to keep her school open and her marriage intact, but might not be able to do both. As a series of crises both personal and political threaten to unravel each of them, Charlie, Austin, and February find their lives inextricable from one another—and changed forever.

PRAISE

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2022—Publisher’s Weekly, Washington Post, NPR, Booklist, Audible, Goodreads

A NYT best seller and Reese’s Book Club, Book of the Month and Literary League April Book Club Pick

2023 American Library Association Alex Award Winner

“Tender, beautiful, and radiantly outraged….This important novel should—true biz—change minds and transform the conversation.” —Maile Meloy, the New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)

“Part tender coming-of-age story, part electrifying tale of political awakening, part heartfelt love letter to Deaf culture, True Biz is wholly a wonder. Sara Nović examines the ways language can include, exclude, or help forge an identity—as well as what it means to carve out a place for yourself in a world that sees you as other.”—Celeste Ng, New York Times bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere

“An electrifying narrative set at a present-day boarding school for Deaf high school students, where they find love and friendship and battle a series of injustices. . . . Nović offers an unforgettable homage to resilience. This is brilliant.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Rollicking, immersive, and boldly, exquisitely felt, True Biz delves into the deepest questions about community, communication, and collective action, inviting the reader into a world of language made new.”—Alexandra Kleeman, author of Something New Under the Sun

“This is my favorite kind of novel, fascinating and smart and brimming with contrasts. It’s a coming-of-age story but also one of anarchy and protest. It’s about the ways communities are bound but also the ways they bind. It’s about belonging versus conforming, individual strength alongside solidarity. I laughed. I learned. I entered a world I knew too little about, at once different from mine and of course the same. I will be recommending this book to absolutely everyone.”—Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of This Is How It Always Is and One Two Three

“Reading True Biz was a transformative experience—it’s as important a book as I’ve read in years. I was in awe of the care and love and hard-won wisdom that went into the writing of it. Sara Novic is the real deal.”—Jami Attenberg, author of All This Could Be Yours

“True Biz is exquisitely crafted and absolutely riveting.”—Vendela Vida, author of We Run the Tides

“In confident, funny prose, True Biz asks the question of all questions: Who are my people? And then, with enormous attunement to the embodied experience of being deaf and being human, answers it.”—Emma Copley Eisenberg, author of The Third Rainbow Girl

“Sara Nović’s gifts for character, story, and language are evident from the first page. True Biz feels like the discovery of a new written form, a love letter to language itself.”—Liz Moore, New York Times bestselling author of Long Bright River

“Sara Novic is one of the best writers of my generation—not just the novelist of Deaf culture, but of human nature writ large. Do yourself a favor and get this book—it is inimitable.”—Ilya Kaminsky, author of Deaf Republic and Dancing in Odessa

“[A] touching and witty celebration of Deaf culture . . . moving and revelatory.”—Booklist (starred review)

“A coming-of-age story that explores the complexities of community and the ways in which language defines us.”—Kirkus Reviews

An electrifying narrative set at a present-day boarding school for Deaf high school students, where they find love and friendship and battle a series of injustices. . . . Nović offers an unforgettable homage to resilience. This is brilliant.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

True Biz, the TV Series?