Winner of the Best First Australian Crime Novel, Ned Kelly Crime
Awards 2006
I hold Jacky close, fix my eyes on the door and walk as fast as I
can.
'Oh, please, don't run away. Think of your child, if you cannot think
of yourself.'
'What we are suggesting is nothing, ' the man mutters darkly, as I
pass through the door and into the brightly lit hall. 'Nothing. Far
worse can happen.'
Far worse.
I have a baby, two shillings, no reputation and nowhere to go, but
even so I cannot imagine what far worse might be.
Out of the Silence is a stunning debut novel about three women from
very different worlds: Maggie Heffernan, a spirited working-class
country girl; Elizabeth Hamilton, whose own disappointment in love has
served only to strengthen her humanity; and the remarkable Vida
Goldstein, the suffragist who was to become the first woman to stand for
Parliament.
When Maggie's life descends into darkness after a terrible betrayal, the
three women's lives collide. Around this tragedy Wendy James has
constructed a masterfully drawn and gripping fiction. Based on a true
story, it unfolds at the dawn of the twentieth century against the
compelling backdrop of the women's suffrage movement and a world on the
brink of enormous change.
The novel powerfully evokes the plight of women in the early 1900s - not
least their limited options, whatever their class and education.
However, at its heart this is a story of love - of love gone wrong; of
its compromises and disappointments; but ultimately of its extraordinary
transformative power.
"This is a work of intelligence and talent informed by a deeply humane
sensitivity." --Sydney Morning Herald
