"Emotionally spry, smartly suspenseful...vibrates with Hitchcockian
atmosphere." -- Booklist (starred review)
Combining the emotional power and dual narrative style of Before We
Were Yours with the nuanced, layered, and atmospheric mystery of The
Dry, a powerful debut novel revolving around a shocking disappearance,
two neighbor families, and shameful secrets from the past that refuse to
stay buried.
It is 1997, and in a basement flat in Hackney, Isla Green is awakened by
a call in the middle of the night: her father phoning from Sydney. 30
years ago, in the suffocating heat of summer 1967, the Greens' next-door
neighbour Mandy disappeared. At the time, it was thought she had fled a
broken marriage and gone to start a new life; but now Mandy's family is
trying to reconnect, and there is no trace of her. Isla's father Joe was
allegedly the last person to see her alive, and now he's under suspicion
of murder.
Isla unwillingly plans to go back to Australia for the first time in a
decade to support her father. The return to Sydney will plunge Isla deep
into the past, to a quiet street by the sea where two couples live side
by side. Isla's parents, Louisa and Joe, have recently emigrated from
England--a move that has left Louisa miserably homesick while Joe
embraces this new life. Next door, Steve and Mandy are equally troubled.
Mandy doesn't want a baby, even though Steve--a cop trying to hold it
together under the pressures of the job--is desperate to become a
father.
The more Isla asks about the past, the more she learns: about both young
couples and the secrets each marriage bore. Could her father be capable
of doing something terrible? How much does her mother know? What will
happen to their family if Isla's worst fears are realized? And is there
another secret in this community, one which goes deeper into Australia's
colonial past, which has held them in a conspiracy of silence?
Deftly exploring the deterioration of relationships and the devastating
truths we keep from those we love, The Silence is a stunning debut
from a promising literary star.
