Sound + Noise

There's a heartbreak between sound and noise, the place where we are our only audience. Jackie and Tom are ordinary people living parallel lives. When their paths finally intersect, the background hum of their longings, hopes, and disappointments builds into something that neither of them could have anticipated. With deft, musical prose, Smith draws the reader into a heartbreakingly familiar story of family, community, and the accidental connections woven in between.

In Sound + Noise, Curtis Smith applies the classic philosophical question "If a tree falls in the forest, and there is no one to hear, does it make a sound?" to the human condition. By turns thoughtful, funny, and bittersweet, Smith's second novel is a remarkable exploration of the resilience and complexities of the human spirit, and the liberating power of love.