Book Synopsis:
A riveting mystery, beautifully unwound. The Silence excavates dark, decades-old secrets buried in human hearts, in families and in nations. I read it in one weekend’ ERIN KELLY
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, Joe, phoning from Sydney.
30 years ago, in the suffocating heat of summer 1967, the Greens’ next-door neighbour Mandy disappeared. Joe claims he thought she had 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 was allegedly the last person to see her alive, and he’s under suspicion of murder.
Back home in Sydney, Isla’s search for the truth takes her back to 1967, when two couples lived side by side on a quiet street by the sea. Could her father be capable of doing something terrible? How much does her mother know? 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 rising literary star.
The Silence is available in ebook and hardback now. You can purchase your copy using the link below.
My Review:
The Silence is a beautifully written, deeply moving and gripping book about a shocking piece of Australian/ British history which I knew nothing about.
Told in two timelines separated by thirty years the author definitely doesn’t shy away from educating the reader or the painful and quite horrifying treatment of aboriginal children in the sixties. The story was quite uncomfortable to read about at some points and I felt quite sick as I learned about everything they experienced.
The characters were all very interesting creations although there weren’t many that I actually liked. All of them seemed very realistic as they all had flaws due to keeping everything buried and this helped me care even more about the story as I could see the affect everything had had on people.
I thought this story was very atmospheric with the Australian heat helping to describe the tensions that were simmering beneath the surface. The extra storyline of what had happened to Maddie added an intriguing second storyline to run alongside the main one and I found myself wondering how everything would fit together. I can’t believe this is the author’s debut novel and I really look forward to reading more from her in the future.
Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Borough Press for my copy of this book via Netgalley.
About The Author:
Susan Allott is a fiction writer whose debut novel THE SILENCE was published in e-book and audio formats on 30th April 2020 by Borough Press (Harper Collins, UK) with the hardback edition published in August 2020. The UK paperback will follow in April 2021.
THE SILENCE was published in North America on 19th May 2020 by William Morrow (Harper Collins, US) with the paperback to follow in May 2021.
In Australia and New Zealand THE SILENCE was published by Harper Collins on 1st May 2020.
Harper Collins will publish THE SILENCE in the rest of its English language territories in August 2020.
In Italy THE SILENCE will be published by Harper Italia and in France by Editions Belfond.
Over The Rainbow Blog 
Fab review Jo sounds like a tough read! xx
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Thanks for the blog tour support x
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This looks just my sort of book. It’s going straight kn my TBR list. Thanks for the review! 😀
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