Deaf Heaven

Steve Levitt’s Deaf Heaven is about AIDS, angels, faith and the Holocaust; it is also an accomplished and affecting drama about a young man tending to his dying lover. A man who is losing his lover to AIDS encounters a Jewish Holocaust survivor in a sauna at his health club. The survivor senses the man’s sadness; after the young man shares his impending loss, the survivor shares what it means to lose someone within a historical context and what it means to be a witness to history. Deaf Heaven is a landmark work that offers the clearest and strongest comparison yet between the AIDS pandemic and the Holocaust.