Soundtrack of Silence, Matt Hay
Soundtrack of Silence, Matt Hay
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Soundtrack of Silence
Love, Loss, and a Playlist for Life

Author: Matt Hay

Narrator: Matt Hay

Unabridged: 6 hr 58 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/09/2024


Synopsis

This program is read by the author.

An inspiring memoir of a young man who discovered he was going completely deaf just at the moment he’d fallen in love for the first time.

As a child, Matt Hay didn’t know his hearing wasn’t the way everyone else processed sound—because of the workarounds he did to fit in, even the school nurse didn’t catch his condition at the annual hearing and vision checks. But by the time he was a prospective college student and couldn’t pass the entrance requirements for West Point, Hay’s condition, generated by a tumor, was unavoidable: his hearing was going, and fast.

A personal soundtrack was Hay’s determined compensation for his condition. As a typical Midwestern kid growing up in the 1980s whose life events were pegged to pop music, Hay planned to commit his favorite songs to memory. He prepared a mental playlist of the bands he loved and created a way to tap into his most resonant memories. And the track he needed to cement most clearly? The one he and his new girlfriend, Nora—the love of his life—listened to in the car on their first date.

Made vivid with references to instantly recognizable songs—from the Eagles to Elton John, Bob Marley to Bing Crosby, U2 to Peter Frampton—Soundtrack of Silence asks listeners to run the soundtrack of their own lives through their minds. It’s an involving memoir of loss and disability, and, ultimately, a both unique and universal love story.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.

About Matt Hay

MATT HAY is the U.S. Director of Advocacy for rare diseases at a biopharmaceutical company. He has served on the national board of directors for the Children’s Tumor Foundation, as a certified Cochlear Corporation patient advocate, and as a development adviser for the St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf. He lives in Westfield, Indiana, with his wife/hero of more than twenty years and their three teenage children.


Reviews

**Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Matt Hay for an ARC of this book! Now available as of 1.9!** Do you remember the very first time you were listening to a song...and were instantly transported back in time? If you close your eyes now and think of that special song---maybe your la......more

Goodreads review by Shannon

A moving memoir of one man's slow journey to total hearing loss, experience with cochlear implants and how it all affected his relationship with his wife and experience as a father. Heartfelt and great on audio read by the author himself. This was a great look at what its like to go through hearing......more

Goodreads review by Sarah

[ARC received from Net Galley but opinions are my own.] As someone with a genetic condition impacting my hearing, I REALLY wanted to like this book. I’ve had hearing loss since birth and like the author, I have a profound love of music and so the premise of this book resonated with me. Unfortunately......more


Quotes

"[P]oignant. . . [Hay's] optimism in the face of adversity is stirring. This moving memoir makes magic out of facing the music." - Publishers Weekly

“What’s a music lover to do when the music stops? …A medical odyssey told sensitively.” -Kirkus