The Silence

A Novel

By: Susan Allott

Narrated by: Melle Stewart

Length: 11 hrs

Publisher's summary

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. Thirty years ago, in the suffocating heat of summer 1967, the Greens’ next-door neighbor 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 that goes deeper into Australia’s colonial past, that 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.

©2020 Susan Allott (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

Fabulous Story

I loved this book so much, I think I'll turn around and start it again. Magnificent narrator.

Amazing plot, very mid delivery.

I loved the storyline but the narrator was tough to listen to. She paused for too long in between each character and it threw me off.

Gripping.

This is a very good listen. The story is one that will keep you racing through to the end. Well written characters and the narration is superb.

Read this!

This is a twisted story but I enjoyed it. Complicated characters and a solid plot. It is a great read. Excellent narrator.

depressing, but interesting.

Historically an interesting accounting of a tragically rascist practice in Australia against the Aboriginal people and how the practice broke even those who were required to enforce it.

However, we are in a world-widepandemic, and I personally cannot afford (emotionally) to plunge into even DEEPER despair.

Dysfunctional family

Kept me interested. Couldn’t wait to listen to next chapters.Didn’t want to take a break from story.

downer

in these awful times i hoped for a book that was less depressing. This one defined depression. From start to finish.

Excellent

Great story and great character development. I was sad for the book to end. I might read it again. I can’t remember ever doing that but I might with this one

Sorry

This was a book about a very dysfunctional family. A sad, boring book about addiction, lies and failures. I managed to get through it somehow. Hope I don’t pick another one like this in the future.

Way too depressing and unsettling.

This book was way too, depressing an unsettling to me. I feel sorry that I read it and subjected myself to it.