Allen Pasztory is a man who has had to learn to be ordinary, one of his deepest desires. The hearing son of deaf parents, he spoke with his hands before his voice. A gay man, he has spent the last ten years helping to raise his lover's son. More recently, they gave refuge to Allen's young nephew, a boy tormented by his father's hostility. Allen's is a family that has been created as much as born, unconventional in the eyes of both gay and straight society.

Allen is the narrator of Safe as Houses, a deft, insightful, deeply engaging novel that re-envisions the contemporary American family. In an inviting, intelligent voice that the reader always trusts - especially, perhaps, when Allen admits to making things up - he traces his own life from childhood into his thirties, relating it to the lives of those he loves.

His father, Janos, the orphaned son of immigrants, was brought up in a residential school whose stated mission was to deny deaf children their own language. His mother, Marit, is the daughter of Hungarian aristocrats who was brought to America as a refugee. His lover, Jeremy, married his lesbian best friend in love and panic, and lived with her until the birth of their son proved that devotion alone was not a firm enough foundation to build a family.

Jeremy's son, Toby, a cunning and perceptive child, can't remember a time before he and Allen conspired to protect his father from real life. And Allen's sister's son, Kit, came to live with them because and in spite of his father's antipathy toward what Allen represents.

1. Working with metaphors of deafness, language, homosexuality, and illness, Safe as Houses explores a definition of family that includes but is not limited to blood relations, and a definition of fatherhood apart from or in addition to paternity. It is a considerable literary achievement that brings us - as novels are meant to - news of our world.