The Whispers

By: Ashley Audrain

Narrated by: Jill Winternitz

Brought to you by Penguin.

The second novel from the author of The Push, 2021's most explosive Sunday Times bestseller!

One morning on Harlow Lane, four families' lives are changed forever.

Whitney Loverly can only sit by her son's hospital bed after he falls from his bedroom window in the middle of the night. She refuses to speak to anyone.

Back at home, the Loverlys' neighbours must reckon with their own roles in the tragedy - their selfless best friends who live across the street, the ambitious Goldsteins who desperately want a family of their own, and the quiet elderly couple who spend their days people watching on the front porch.

But what happens next, when over the course of a week, the hidden and explosive truths that connect these families must come out?

Exploring envy, motherhood and the intuitions that we silence, this is a novel that asks what happens when good people make bad choices.

Perfect for fans of Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere and Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies.

©2023 Ashley Audrain (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

The Whispers is spellbinding, a shimmering, visceral ride through the dark side of family, of community, of womanhood and mothering. Nobody delves as deep into the guts of motherhood as Ashley Audrain, she really is in a league of her own (Lisa Jewell, Sunday Times #1 Bestselling Author)

Enticing, nuanced, and unflinching, The Whispers opens a secret portal into the private lives of women in suburbia. A narrative portrait of motherhood and marriage, of loneliness and longing, of loss and desire, this is a novel where the characters are so recognizable, it's nearly impossible to feel they are strangers. Rather, through the course of the deeply thrilling and provocative pages, one comes to feel they're as real as neighbours, colleagues and friends. A truly masterful novel (Nita Prose, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Maid)

Riveting ... a fearless deep dive into the real internal lives of women. The Whispers is a brilliant, deeply affecting novel you won't soon forget (Shari Lapena, bestselling author of The Couple Next Door)

Entertaining listen

Great narration. Really enjoyed her first novel so was eager to listen to this one.