The Weight Of Silence
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5.0 • 4 Ratings
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- £2.99
Publisher Description
‘Fans of Jodi Picoult will devour this’
Red magazine
‘Deeply moving and exquisitely lyrical, this is a powerhouse of a debut novel’
Tess Gerritsen
‘Two little girls are missing. Both are seven years old and have been missing for at least sixteen hours.’
Calli Clark is a dreamer. A sweet, gentle girl, Callie suffers from selective mutism, brought on by a tragedy she experienced as a toddler. Her mother Antonia tries her best to help, but is trapped in a marriage to a violent husband.
Petra Gregory is Calli’s best friend, her soul mate and her voice. But neither Petra nor Calli have been heard from since their disappearance was discovered.
Now Calli and Petra’s families are bound by the question of what has happened to their children. As support turns to suspicion, it seems the answers lie trapped in the silence of unspoken secrets.
Reviews
‘Fans of Jodi Picoult will devour this’
Red magazine
‘Deeply moving and exquisitely lyrical’
Tess Gerritsen
‘Beautifully written, compassionately told, and relentlessly suspenseful’
Diane Chamberlain
‘Set to become a bookclub staple’
Guardian
‘This will have you gripped until the last page’
Closer
‘Deeply moving and lyrical’
Company
‘A memorable read’
Sunday Express
‘Totally gripping’
Marie Claire
‘This gripping novel is moving and thought-provoking’
Heat
‘Emotionally charged’
My Weekly
About the author
Heather Gudenkauf was born in Wagner, South Dakota, the youngest of six children. Having been born with a profound unilateral hearing impairment, Heather tended to use books as a retreat and escape the world around her. Heather became a voracious reader and the seed of becoming a writer was planted. She is the author of several New York Times bestselling novels, including the TV Book Club pick, The Weight of Silence.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Gudenkauf's tightly plotted debut packs a lot of unsavory doings into a few unfortunate summer days in Willow Creek, Iowa. Seven-year-old Calli Clark hasn't spoken a word in the three years since a particularly nasty run-in with her violent, wife-beating father, Griff. During a bender, Griff suddenly decides to haul his mute daughter into the nearby forest, where they get lost. At the same time, Calli's best friend Petra goes missing, and a manhunt is launched, led by deputy sheriff Loras Louis, who still carries a torch for Calli's mother. Gudenkauf moves the story forward at a fast clip and is adept at building tension. There's a particular darkness to her heartland, rife as it is with predators and the walking wounded, and her unsentimental take on the milieu manages to find some hope without being maudlin.
