Silence Is a Sense

Synopsis

&“Lyrical, moving, and revealing." —Tracy Chevalier, bestselling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring A transfixing and beautifully rendered novel about a refugee&’s escape from civil war—and the healing power of community. A young woman sits in her apartment, watching the small daily dramas of her neighbors across the way. She is an outsider, a mute voyeur, safe behind her windows, and she sees it all—the sex, the fights, the happy and unhappy families. Journeying from her war-torn Syrian homeland to this unnamed British city has traumatized her into silence, and her only connection to the world is the column she writes for a magazine under the pseudonym &“the Voiceless,&” where she tries to explain the refugee experience without sensationalizing it—or revealing anything about herself. Gradually, though, the boundaries of her world expand. She ventures to the corner store, to a bookstore and a laundromat, and to a gathering at a nearby mosque. And it isn&’t long before she finds herself involved in her neighbors&’ lives. When an anti-Muslim hate crime rattles the neighborhood, she has to make a choice: Will she remain a voiceless observer, or become an active participant in a community that, despite her best efforts, is quickly becoming her own? Layla AlAmmar, a Kuwaiti-American writer and brilliant student of Arab literature, delivers here a complex and fluid book about memory, revolution, loss, and safety. Most of all, Silence is a Sense reminds us just how fundamental human connection is to survival.

Copyright:

2021

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

Book Size:

304 Pages

ISBN-13:

9781643751726

Publisher:

Algonquin Books

Date of Addition:

07/09/22

Copyrighted By:

Layla AlAmmar.

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Literature and Fiction, Politics and Government

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.