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- £3.99
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
"A piercing story of a girl who responds to trauma by mustering the most powerful weapon available to her: silence. (...) melodic, mythological, transformative, a testament to literature’s powers..." Vanity Fair
Ellen has stopped talking. She thinks she may have killed her dad. Her brother’s barricaded himself in his room. Their mother, a successful actress, carries on as normal. We’re a family of light! she insists. But darkness seeps in everywhere and in their separate worlds each of them longs for togetherness.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This lean, moving novel from Knausg rd (The Helios Disaster) explores the inner life of a child who has decided to stop talking. When the story begins, adolescent Ellen reveals that she prayed for her mentally ill father to die, just before he died. The family is still in recovery. Her brother is abusive some early scenes of physical violence are disturbing and her mother, an attractive actress, oscillates through the house with giddy energy. The action tracks a tumultuous school year, as the girl's brother and mother each meet a new love and Ellen sinks ever deeper into the stubborn muteness of her own making. There are sequences of happy memories, but the girl's father is a specter lurking in the background. The narrative is borderline stream-of-consciousness, with hallucinations mingling with reality, forcing readers to constantly question what they are told. Knausg rd is an impressive writer, and she has created a unique, powerful lead in a world all her own.
