The Quality of Silence
On 24 November Yasmin and her ten-year-old daughter Ruby set off on a journey across Northern Alaska. They’re searching for Ruby’s father, missing in the arctic wilderness.
More isolated with each frozen mile they cover, they travel deeper into an endless night. And Ruby, deaf since birth, must brave the darkness where sight cannot guide her.
She won’t abandon her father. But winter has tightened its grip, and there is somebody out there who wants to stop them.
Somebody tracking them through the dark.
..There are many things to love about Lupton’s third novel, not least its stunning evocation of the stark, beautiful Alaskan wilds…An elegant icily unique thriller; you won’t read anything like it this year.’
The Observer
The Quality of Silence is a sophisticated thriller which brilliantly evokes the sublime and terrifying landscape of Alaska…while touching on a range of subjects: marital love and strife, the culture of the Inupiat people and the fragility of our planet.’
Sunday Telegraph
A forbidding Alaskan winter is the setting for this ambitious and imaginative novel…Narrated in part by Ruby, who is a delightfully realized character, (her deafness is treated with great sensitivity), the landscape, wildlife and bitter climate of Alaska are powerfully drawn. Chilling in every sense, you won’t want to step away from this story.’
Sunday Mirror
…a literary slow burn, whose focus is as much on human endurance and a mother’s relationship with her deaf daughter as the mystery of her husband’s disappearance…This is Lupton at the height of her storytelling powers.’
Daily Mail
'An eerie eco-tale of disasters both real and man-made on the frozen tundra of Alaska. Yasmin and her daughter embark on what becomes an epic journey into the wilderness, [and] the alternating voices of mother and daughter are so compelling, it’s hard not to want to go along for the ride.
The book skates smoothly over issues of environmentalism, tribal rights and the relationship of the deaf and hearing worlds, including the question of what it means to have a “voice.” The temperature drops, the action heats up and the suspense builds with the storm. Even a white-out can’t hide the darkness within.'
The book skates smoothly over issues of environmentalism, tribal rights and the relationship of the deaf and hearing worlds, including the question of what it means to have a “voice.” The temperature drops, the action heats up and the suspense builds with the storm. Even a white-out can’t hide the darkness within.'
Vanessa Friedman, NY Times
[A] wonderful writer . . . absolutely gripping.'
Jane Garvey, BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour
Like a breath of icy air, this relentlessly tense thriller is also a child’s eye family drama like none other. Not since Smilla’s Feeling for snow have I shivered like this.’
Emma Donoghue
With The Quality of Silence, Rosamund Lupton brings her sophisticated brand of suspense to a setting that might have attracted Jack London: the remote frontier of northern Alaska. An elegant, chilling read from a writer who continues to stretch the bounds of suspense.'
William Landay
A taut psychological thriller, The Quality of Silence will have your heart thumping. Lupton’s masterful pacing and riveting plotting make her a winning rival of Tana French. Absolutely gripping.’
Louise Penny
I loved The Quality of Silence. It was scary, suspenseful and so exquisitely, evocatively written I often found myself shivering as if I were there in Alaska with Ruby and her mother. It was everything you want in a wonderful novel.'
Liane Moriarty
The pressure is on to keep creating equally brilliant stories. British author Rosamund Lupton has done just that with new novel The Quality of Silence.'
Red magazine
The Quality Of Silence will have you gripped from start to finish.
Cosmopolitan
