The Quiet and the Loud
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
OUR HOPELESS, HOPEFUL WORLD
A novel about the contours of friendship, family, forgiveness, trauma and love that explores the stories we suppress and the stories we speak - and the healing that comes when we voice the things we've kept quiet for so long.
George's life is loud. On the water, though, with everything hushed above and below, she is steady, silent. Then her estranged dad says he needs to talk, and George's past begins to wake up, looping around her ankles, trying to drag her under.
Everything is a blaring, blazing mess. Could Calliope, the girl who has just cartwheeled into George's world and shot it through with brilliant, dazzling colour, be her calm among the chaos?
WINNER OF THE NSW PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARDS ETHEL TURNER PRIZE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE'S LITERATURE 2024
SHORTLISTED QUEENSLAND LITERARY AWARDS GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY YOUNG ADULT BOOK AWARD 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR THE VICTORIAN PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARDS WRITING FOR YOUNG ADULTS 2024
SHORTLISTED FOR THE CBCA BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDS BOOK OF THE YEAR: OLDER READERS 2024
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ABIA BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR OLDER CHILDREN (AGES 13+) 2024
LONGLISTED FOR THE ASLA DANZ CHILDREN'S BOOK AWARD FOR YOUNG ADULT NOVELS 2025
PRAISE FOR THE QUIET AND THE LOUD
'A writer to be reckoned with' Kathleen Glasgow
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fox (How It Feels to Float) delivers an immersive, Sydney, Australia–set accounting of a teen struggling to overcome past traumas while dealing with her loved ones' varying conflicts. Whenever life begins to overwhelm 18-year-old George, she escapes to the peace and quiet of kayaking. But after she learns that her estranged father is dying of heart disease, she doesn't believe kayaking will help with her headspace, especially when she recalls a haunting memory: her father abandoning a then 10-year-old George on a kayak one night in the middle of a lake. He requests that she visit him in Seattle, saying he wants to make amends, but also asks that she not reveal his diagnosis to her mother. Meanwhile, George is unsure how to help her friend Tess, who is dealing with postpartum depression, and George's worries over Tess stall her budding romance with newcomer Calliope. Harrowing flashbacks told via George's vulnerable voice detail past experiences featuring her father's alcohol dependency, while visceral depictions of Australian wildfires add a palpable element of urgency that both mirrors and impacts George's desperation to take control of her life. George and Tess are assumed white; Calliope is of Sri Lankan descent. Ages 14–up.
