The Hearing Test
The narrator of Eliza Barry Callahan's debut is an artist in her late twenties living alone in a New York studio with her dog. One morning she wakes to a low drone in one ear and is told she has sudden deafness, with no clear cause and the threat of losing her hearing entirely. Rather than a story of crisis, the novel becomes a diary of attention. Over a year she notices the small chance encounters around her, the people she meets, the art and music she returns to, and the strange clarity that comes when one sense starts to fade. It was a TeaTime Book Club pick by Dakota Johnson.
What you might want to know about The Hearing Test
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A young artist in New York wakes one morning to a drone in her ear, is diagnosed with sudden deafness, and keeps a record of the year that follows.
It is a work of autofiction, drawing on the author's own experience of sudden hearing loss, but it is written and presented as a novel.
Yes. Dakota Johnson selected it as the second pick for her TeaTime Book Club in April 2024.
The Hearing Test was written by Eliza Barry Callahan, published in 2024 by Catapult.
The Hearing Test is 176 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Hearing Test takes most readers 3 to 4 hours to finish.
The Hearing Test is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.