The Quality of Silence
A Novel
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3.3 • 14 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The gripping, moving story of a mother and daughter's quest to uncover a dark secret in the Alaskan wilderness, from the New York Times bestselling author of Sister and Afterwards.
Thrillingly suspenseful and atmospheric, The Quality of Silence is the story of Yasmin, a beautiful astrophysicist, and her precocious deaf daughter, Ruby, who arrive in a remote part of Alaska to be told that Ruby's father, Matt, has been the victim of a catastrophic accident. Unable to accept his death as truth, Yasmin and Ruby set out into the hostile winter of the Alaskan tundra in search of answers. But as a storm closes in, Yasmin realizes that a very human danger may be keeping pace with them. And with no one else on the road to help, they must keep moving, alone and terrified, through an endless Alaskan night.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Astrophysicist Yasmin Alfredson, the heroine of this heart-stopping page-turner from bestseller Lupton (Afterwards), makes a desperate gamble to save her marriage and flies with her deaf 10-year-old daughter, Ruby, from their home in London to Alaska, where her husband, Matt, a wildlife filmmaker, has been shooting in a remote area north of the Arctic Circle. At the airport in Fairbanks, police tell a stunned Yasmin that Matt is dead, one of two dozen victims of a freakish fire that wiped out the Inuit hamlet where he was based. But in the absence of identifiable remains, she isn't buying it, and even in the face of a looming winter storm, she resolves to get herself and Ruby, whom she has managed to keep somewhat shielded from the news (despite what the girl can glean from lip reading), the almost 500 miles on a two-lane ice road to hunt for her husband. Lupton limns a starkly beautiful story at once as expansive as the aurora borealis and as intimate as a mother and daughter finally learning to truly hear each another.
Customer Reviews
Simply Not for Me
The quality of silence tells the highly improbable story of a young woman dragging her 10 year old deaf daughter across the frozen landscape of Northern Alaska hoping to prove that her husband is indeed alive. I first had a hard time believing the story as plausible, but it was made even more difficult to become invested in this story due to the rapid and unexpected jumps in perspective. I typically enjoy having a story told from multiple points of view, but this story switched too often and between too many characters. I think some people may enjoy this story, but it simply was not for me.