The Quiet

Isaac is Hannah’s entire world. She knows that her son is gifted, and that those gifts make him vulnerable. To keep him safe, she spends every waking moment by his side. If she lets her guard down, lets him out of her sight, lets him show what he’s capable of, he will be taken from her. When the Soundfield arrived twenty years ago, the world changed with it. Now, people are forced to live at night due to the deadly heat of the day, food and water are scarce, and everyday life is punctuated by the constant and disconcerting hum of the Field. A brilliant scientist, Hannah spent her early career working on the enigma of the Soundfield, looking for answers; now, resigned, she has focused all her energies on keeping Isaac living, and not just alive. To do so, she will have to pretend she is someone else, lie to those closest to her and learn to trust in strangers, even those who might wish her and Isaac ill. The Quiet touches on lots of themes – the limitations of science, our relationship with our past selves, the joy and solace of community – but at its core this is a novel about a parent’s love for their child, and the lengths we will go to in order to protect the ones we love most.