Silence Was My First Language
a memior
Sign In or Register Now to see if this title is available for request.
Buy on Amazon Buy on BN.com Buy on Bookshop.orgSend NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date Oct 6 2026 | Archive Date Mar 15 2027
rich dunning books | Publisher/Company: Rich Dunning Books Imprint: Rich Dunning Books
Talking about this book? Use #SilenceWasMyFirstLanguage #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!
Description
This is the story of what happens when childhood trauma is left unspoken and what becomes possible when silence is finally broken.
Rich Dunning was three years old when his father walked away. Soon after, his mother married a man whose alcoholism, violence, and cruelty transformed their Bronx basement into a place where fear dictated every decision and survival depended on becoming invisible. Violence became ordinary. Poverty was relentless. Childhood became an exercise in survival. Rich learned to recognize drunken footsteps before a key ever reached the lock. He learned where to hide when the shouting began. At night, he wrapped blankets tightly around his body because rats bit exposed skin while he slept and roaches crawled across the floor and walls. Silence was not a choice. It was survival.
Children raised in violent homes learn to read faces before words are spoken, anticipate danger before it arrives, and disappear before becoming the next target. Those instincts can save a child.
They can also imprison an adult. Long after escaping the Bronx, Rich carried those lessons into every corner of his life. They shaped his relationships, fueled alcoholism, reinforced shame, and convinced him that achievement could bury a past no one else could see. From the outside, he built an extraordinary career. On the inside, he remained the frightened little boy who believed survival meant never letting anyone know the truth.
With extraordinary honesty, Dunning confronts domestic violence, child abuse, abandonment, addiction, homelessness, recovery, forgiveness, and the lifelong psychological impact of growing up in fear. He does not search for villains or offer easy answers. He simply tells the truth, allowing readers to witness both the devastating cost of trauma and the remarkable resilience of the human spirit.
This memoir speaks to survivors of abuse, families affected by addiction, children who grew up too quickly, and anyone who has spent years believing the past could never loosen its grip. It is a story of survival, but more importantly, it is a story of hope. It reminds us that while trauma may shape a life, it does not have to define one. He offers a different kind of courage, not measured by physical endurance, but by the willingness to confront the memories most people spend a lifetime trying to outrun.
A Note From the Publisher
The memoir contains mature subject matter, including childhood abuse, domestic violence, poverty, homelessness, alcoholism, addiction, and suicidal ideation. These experiences are presented within the larger context of survival, recovery, fatherhood, healing, and breaking generational cycles.
Rich Dunning has been sober since July 7, 2017. His lived experience informs both the memoir and his broader commitment to advocacy for vulnerable children through the First Language Foundation.
Reviewers, librarians, booksellers, educators, media professionals, podcasters, and content creators interested in memoir, recovery, trauma, resilience, and personal transformation are especially encouraged to request a review copy.
Advance Praise
“[This] gritty memoir… gives voice to a poor boy growing up on the mean streets of New York City, and it’s a voice worth listening to. A deeply moving story about triumphing over generational poverty, despair, and addiction.”
—Kirkus Review
“[A] heart-wrenching memoir of abuse, violence, and, above all, survival… Dunning’s themes of inheritance—and how to overcome it—are compelling… [This] vulnerable memoir leaves hope for overcoming childhood trauma."
—Publishers Weekly’s BookLife
“A bruising and deeply personal memoir about a boy who learns silence as a survival instinct, then spends much of his adult life trying to unlearn it… A hard-earned account of how trauma travels through the body, through families, through choices, and how healing often begins long after a person appears to have escaped"
—Literary Titan
Marketing Plan
A comprehensive national marketing and publicity campaign is supporting the October 6, 2026 worldwide release of *Silence Was My First Language*.
The campaign includes targeted outreach to national and regional media, podcasts, book reviewers, librarians, booksellers, influencers, and communities focused on memoir, recovery, resilience, childhood adversity, homelessness, and personal transformation.
Advance review and discovery efforts include NetGalley, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly’s BookLife, Literary Titan, award submissions, advance reader copies, and direct outreach to reviewers, media professionals, and literary influencers.
Rich Dunning is supporting the release through an active author platform across LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and his direct-to-consumer website, RichDunningBooks.com. The digital campaign includes original video content, author interviews, podcast appearances, email marketing, reader engagement, and ongoing social media promotion leading into and beyond publication.
The book will be available worldwide beginning October 6, 2026, with distribution supporting availability through major online and retail bookselling channels. Digital and audiobook editions will broaden the campaign across multiple formats. The audiobook is narrated by the author and includes an exclusive extended conversation with a clinical psychologist exploring trauma, addiction, recovery, and healing.
Direct-to-consumer preorder marketing includes six exclusive unpublished bonus chapters for readers ordering through RichDunningBooks.com.
The campaign is also connected to the First Language Foundation, established to support efforts addressing childhood homelessness, hunger, abuse, exploitation, and trafficking. A portion of proceeds from *Silence Was My First Language*, as well as Rich Dunning’s future books, is committed to the foundation’s mission.
Marketing and publicity will continue beyond publication with sustained podcast and media outreach, social content, reader-review campaigns, speaking opportunities, community engagement, and promotion centered on the book’s themes of survival, recovery, resilience, and breaking generational cycles.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9798995587217 |
| PRICE | $29.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 317 |