The Listeners
A Novel
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3.7 • 25 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE FINALIST
A propulsive literary page-turner about a family torn apart by a mother’s obsession with a sound that no one else can hear
One night, while lying in bed next to her husband, Claire Devon suddenly hears a low hum. This innocuous sound, which no one else in the house can hear, has no obvious source or medical cause, but it begins to upset the balance of Claire’s life. When she discovers that one of her students can also hear the hum, the two strike up an unlikely and intimate friendship. Finding themselves increasingly isolated from their families and colleagues, they fall in with a disparate group of people who also perceive the sound. What starts out as a kind of neighbourhood self-help group gradually transforms into something much more extreme, with far-reaching, devastating consequences.
The Listeners is an electrifying novel that treads the thresholds of faith, conspiracy and mania. Compelling and exhilarating, it forces us to consider how strongly we hold on to what we perceive, and the way different views can tear a family apart.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In this utterly captivating and confounding novel, suburban high-school teacher Claire Devon starts to hear a mysterious sound that her husband and teenage daughter can’t—and it doesn’t go away. Ostracized, sleep-deprived, and desperate to find the source, Claire grows closer to a handful of neighbours who also hear the hum—including one of her students—as her life at home falls apart. Author Jordan Tannahill is brilliant at making us suspend our disbelief as Claire dives deeper into both her investigation and her deteriorating mental health. A gripping mystery and a brilliant piece of literary fiction, The Listeners shows what it’s like when your reality no longer aligns with that of those you love the most.
