Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.

The Silent Treatment

A Novel

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

"A remarkably assured debut which doesn't go where you expect it to go. I very much look forward to seeing what she writes next." — Jojo Moyes, #1 New York Times bestselling author

"The premise alone had me, but The Silent Treatment itself is just heartrendingly lovely. It's beautiful, so moving and clever. I truly adored it." — Josie Silver, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One Day in December

Resonant with the emotional power of the bestselling novels of David Nicholls and Jojo Moyes, a rich and poignant debut about lies, loss, and a transcendent love at the heart of a troubled marriage.
A lifetime together.
Six months of silence.
One last chance.

By all appearances, Frank and Maggie share a happy, loving marriage. But for the past six months, they have not spoken. Not a sentence, not a single word. Maggie isn't sure what, exactly, provoked Frank's silence, though she has a few ideas.

Day after day, they have eaten meals together and slept in the same bed in an increasingly uncomfortable silence that has become, for Maggie, deafening.

Then Frank finds Maggie collapsed in the kitchen, unconscious, an empty package of sleeping pills on the table. Rushed to the hospital, she is placed in a medically induced coma while the doctors assess the damage.

If she regains consciousness, Maggie may never be the same. Though he is overwhelmed at the thought of losing his wife, will Frank be able to find his voice once again—and explain his withdrawal—or is it too late?

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

  • Formats

  • Languages

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 6, 2020
      Greaves’s confident, bittersweet debut explores an unhappy married couple’s enduring love. After Maggie, Frank’s wife of 40 years, is induced into a coma following an apparent suicide attempt, Frank spends hours at her hospital bedside. Despite Frank’s shame and reluctance, a persistent nurse encourages Frank to talk to his inert wife. What the nurse doesn’t know, however, is that Frank and Maggie haven’t spoken to one another in six months. The reasons for their silence unfold in dual narratives of their courtship, marriage, and heartbreaking journey through parenthood, related first in Frank’s bedside confession and later in Maggie’s letters that he finds. After years of childlessness early in their marriage, Frank and Maggie were overjoyed at the birth of their daughter, Eleanor, now a college dropout. The bliss faded as Eleanor suffered from depression and drug addiction as a teenager. While Greaves’s choice to tell the story through both Frank’s and Maggie’s voices yields occasional moments of redundancy, she finds a poignant distance between their perspectives. Greaves creates an affecting sense of irony: Maggie and Frank adore one another, but retreat into silence instead of finding strength by sharing their heartache and facing their struggles together. While this affecting tale covers well-trod ground, it still packs an emotional punch.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading