Joanne Greenberg

The bestselling classic about three generations of a deaf family in modern America, by the author of I Never Promised You a Rose Garden ‘A miracle of empathy, a tour de force’ The New York TimesTwo young deaf people, Abel and Janice, elope from their punitive school in the 1920s and begin married life with high hopes. But navigating ‘Outside’, the world of the hearing, is harder than they anticipated. After a misunderstanding about a car payment kickstarts years of debt for the couple, we follow them through the birth of their daughter Margaret, through grinding work, quiet tragedies and humble triumphs over the decades, as the rich language of Sign – and their powerful love for each other – enable them to survive. Inspired by the author’s work with the deaf community, In This Sign is a rare, compassionate portrait of the lives of deaf people, and a moving family saga. With an Introduction by Sara Novic and a new Afterword by the author

The bestselling modern classic by the author of I Never Promised You a Rose Garden about a deaf couple, their hearing child, and the bond they create through sign language, featuring a new introduction by Sara Novic, author of the New York Times bestseller True Biz, and a new afterword by the author "Astute and wholly authentic . . . This novel isn't only one of deaf hardship, but also one of bravery and great joy. . . . Over the course of it, I was often as gripped . . . as I am while reading a thriller." --Sara Novic, from the Introduction A Penguin Classic Abel and Janice meet at a school for the deaf. Sign language brings them together, enabling them to survive and, indeed, to forge a love too powerful to be broken by the world into which they were born. Spanning forty years, from the late 1920s to the early 1960s, In This Sign follows the lives of Abel, Janice, and their hearing daughter, Margaret, as they contend uneasily with the "Outside"--a world designed, often purposely, to be inhospitable to those like them. First published in 1970, only a decade after ASL's formal recognition as a language and well before the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, In This Sign stands out as a rare, compassionate portrait of the deaf community. For more than seventy-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 2,000 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Joanne Greenberg was born in Brooklyn, New York and was graduated from American University, Washington, D. C., with a major in anthropology and English literature. In 1955, she married Albert Greenberg, who encouraged her to write her first book, The King's Persons, an account of the York Massacre at York Castle in 1190. The novel received the Harry and Ethel Daroff Memorial Fiction Award as well as the Jewish Book Council of America award. This has been followed by 15 novels and four collections of short stories. Her most famous work is the classic I Never Promised You A Rose Garden, which was adapted into a 1977 movie and a 2004 play of the same name. Her novel In This Sign was made into a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie called Love Is Never Silent. Joanne lives in a mountaintop home near Lookout Mountain, Colorado. She and Albert were married for 67 years. Albert passed in 2022. Their two sons are grown. Joanne writes daily, tutors in Latin and Hebrew, was a Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Fiction Writing at the Colorado School of Mines, and is active in the Beth Evergreen congregation, conducting Bar Mitzvah preparation as well as other involvements. She is a frequent participant in writers' seminars and workshops. Additionally, she performs as a storyteller, helping to keep this art-and the stories-alive. In this memoir, she describes her years as a volunteer EMT with her local fire department in the Colorado Rockies.

The ground-breaking cult classic about a young woman's battle with schizophreniaWith a Foreword by Esmé Weijun Wang and an Afterword by the author'She fought them with her head and her teeth while the restraints were being tied, trying, doglike, to bite herself'Sixteen-year-old Deborah's identity is shattering, as she retreats further and further from the 'normal' world into her imaginary kingdom of Yr, a fantastical inner refuge both lush and horrifying. Sent to a psychiatric hospital, she must, with the help of a gifted psychiatrist, try to find a way back. Joanne Greenberg's fictionalized autobiography became a global bestseller on publication in 1964, and remains a wrenching account of mental illness.'A rare and wonderful insight into the dark kingdom of the mind' Chicago Tribune'Marvellous ... a courage that is sometimes breathtaking' The New York Times Book Review

The multimillion-copy bestselling modern classic of autobiographical fiction about a young woman's struggle with mental health, featuring a new foreword by Esm Weijun Wang, the New York Times bestselling author of The Collected Schizophrenias, and a new afterword by the author Also available from Penguin Classics: Joanne Greenberg's bestselling modern classic In This Sign After making an attempt on her own life, sixteen-year-old Deborah Blau is diagnosed with schizophrenia. With the reluctant and fearful consent of her parents, she enters a psychiatric hospital many hours from her home in suburban Chicago. Here she will spend the next three years, trying, with the help of a gifted psychiatrist, to find a path back to her "normal" life, and to emerge from the imaginary Kingdom of Yr in which she has sought refuge. A semiautobiographical novel originally published under the pen name Hannah Green just a year after Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar--a very different portrait of psychological breakdown--I Never Promised You a Rose Garden remains, more than half a century later, a timeless and ultimately hopeful book, ripe for rediscovery by a new generation eager to erase the stigma of mental illness. For more than seventy-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 2,000 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

In the isolated ski-resort town of Gold Flume, longtime Sheriff Jay Isaacs, prepares to confront three teens for a condo break-in. On his way to the county seat of Aureole, with the teens in custody in the dead of winter, an earthquake shakes the mountain and creates an avalanche which seals off the small town from the rest of civilization. No passage out of town, no electricity, no Wi-Fi. And with the spring melt, the town will soon be underwater. In Joanne Greenberg's Jubilee Year, the world is flipped upside down as the town must revert to the old days and old skills to survive a brutal winter with no electricity, no Wi-Fi, no cell phones, no modern conveniences. It's a clash of culture, values, age and youth, as a divided town must come together to survive. Joanne Greenberg was born in Brooklyn, New York, and was graduated from American University, Washington, D. C., with a major in anthropology and English literature. She also studied at the University of London and the University of Colorado. In 1955, she married Albert Greenberg, who encouraged her to write her first book, The King's Persons, an account of the York Massacre. This has been followed by 15 novels and four collections of short stories. Her most famous work is the classic I Never Promised You A Rose Garden which was adapted into a 1977 movie and a 2004 play of the same name. Her book, In This Sign, was made into a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie called Love Is Never Silent.

Empty-nester Grace Dowben finds solace in her marriage, community, and volunteer work, but she suddenly must decide how to resolve her love for a newcomer who is young enough to be her son.