Rich Dunning spent more than fifteen years writing Silence Was My First Language. The memoir arrives in October 2026 as a raw, scene-driven account of a childhood spent learning that silence could keep you alive.
A Childhood Where Speaking Carried Consequences
Raised in a Bronx basement marked by poverty, neglect, hunger, violence, and the constant threat of a stepfather, Dunning learned early that speaking often carried consequences. Home offered little protection. Watchfulness replaced safety. The book opens in that environment and follows the long aftermath: displacement, homelessness, young love, ambition, marriage, fatherhood, addiction, relapse, treatment, and the ongoing work of recovery.
Not a Tidy Redemption Story
This is not a tidy redemption story. Dunning does not present healing as a finish line. He shows how trauma moves through the body, through families, and through the choices that follow. He writes with the same intensity the memories carry. Small details land with weight: the roaches and rats, a fire escape used as a watchtower, blue Nike sneakers hidden away, sugarcane fields in the Dominican Republic, the procedural clarity of AA rooms. The prose feels lived rather than recalled.
Literary Titan called it a bruising and deeply personal memoir, noting that its strength lies in the author’s willingness to tell the truth about himself as fiercely as he tells the truth about what was done to him. In a follow-up author interview, Dunning explained that silence once protected his pain for decades, and that telling the truth is what finally helped him heal.
The Author Behind the Memoir
Dunning brings more than personal history to the page. He is a senior executive in the medical device industry with more than three decades of experience leading in high-stakes environments that demand precision, accountability, and steady execution under pressure. You can read more about his background on the About Rich Dunning page. The discipline that shaped his professional life also shaped the writing. He has completed two novels, The Jaguar and Selling Arteries to the Devil, and continues work on additional manuscripts. The memoir stands as the foundation of a larger body of work that bridges survivor experience and the realities of leadership.
One Dollar From Every Book
A core commitment runs alongside the books. Beginning with the first copy sold of Silence Was My First Language, one dollar from every book written by Rich Dunning supports organizations that protect vulnerable children from abuse, hunger, homelessness, exploitation, and early exposure to drugs and alcohol. That commitment continues with every future title through the First Language Foundation.
Who This Book Is For
Readers drawn to candid memoirs of childhood trauma, addiction, family rupture, masculinity, and recovery will find a voice that refuses both self-pity and easy answers. The book asks hard questions about accountability, the limits of love under damage, and what it means to keep moving forward without pretending the past was useful. At its strongest, it shows a man learning that strength and vulnerability can exist in the same life, and that silence, once a survival tool, eventually had to be set down.
We produced the official book trailer for Silence Was My First Language. Explore more author features on our Author Features page, including profiles like Mary Maddox: Books That Aren’t Afraid of the Dark. You can find the book and more about the author at richdunningbooks.com.
