A love story wrapped in a setback/comeback memoir of a young man who discovered he was going completely deaf just at the moment hed fallen in love for the first time.

As a child, Matt Hay didnt know his hearing wasnt the way everyone else processed soundand like a lot of kids who do workarounds to fit in, even the school nurse didnt catch his condition at the annual hearing and vision checks. But as a prospective college student who couldnt pass the entrance requirements for West Point, Hays condition, generated by a tumor, was unavoidable: his hearing was going, and fast.

Soundtrack of Silencewas his determined compensation for his condition: 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, a mental playbook not only of the bands he loved, but a way to tap his most resonant memories. And the track he needed to cement most clearly? The one he and his new girlfriend Norathe love of his lifelistened to in the car on their first date.

Made vivid with references to instantly recognizable songsfrom The Eagles to Elton John, Bob Marley to Bing Crosby, U2 to Peter FramptonSoundtrack of Silenceasks readers to run the soundtrack of their own lives through their minds. And, like much of the music it invokes, its in the end a happy story: Hay does marry the girl of his dreams, complex and cutting-edge surgeries allow him via implant and linked external devices to partially hear, and hes able to share lullaby time with his and Noras children.