Fiction / Gay Interest / Middle East
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The
Deaf-Mute Boy "I was powerfully moved and haunted by The Deaf-Mute Boy. Joseph Geraci's deft and emotionally nuanced seduction of the reader—even as our protagonist is enchanted by Tunisia—struck me as truly remarkable."—Tim Miller, author of 1001 Beds The Deaf-Mute Boy—equal parts travel story, love story, and a resonant confrontation with the Muslim world—is the tale of a gay American professor immersed in a North African society. Maurice Burke, an archaeologist, is invited to speak at a conference in the bustling port town of Sousse, Tunisia. At first disillusioned by its rampant tourism and squalid commercialism, Maurice becomes intrigued by his surroundings after meeting a local deaf-mute boy. While exploring a vibrant souk, Maurice encounters a religious leader who guides him on a fateful introduction to the boy's family. As Maurice's involvement with the deaf-mute boy intensifies, he finds himself drawn into a maze of Tunisian politics, culture, and religion. "Once Tunisia was the land of Gide and de Montherlant—eroticized, romantic, 'oriental'–but that was then and this is now. Overrun by tourists and fundamentalists–post-colonial, melancholic and inexplicable, threatened and threatening–it is still seductive. The Deaf-Mute Boy is a devastatingly accurate portrayal of the reality behind the modern tourism facade."–Peter Lamborn Wilson Joseph Geraci
is the author of the novels Loving Sander and Marrying
Tom, and editor of the anthology Dares to Speak. He
was a member of the editorial collective of The Catholic Worker
and is director of the Paidika Foundation in Amsterdam. For many
years he has been a dealer in rare photographs.
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