Silence is a Sense

Layla AlAmmar

From Shelf: My Most Selfish Reads 2021

A SUNDAY TIMES STYLE RECOMMEND

'Lyrical, moving, revealing' TRACY CHEVALIER

'Brilliant' NIKITA LALWANI

'Such beautiful writing... A little bit Rear Window, a little bit Home Fire, a little bit Shameless. I loved it' LOUISA YOUNG

'Daring and devastating' FIONA MOZLEY

A young woman spends her days watching the neighbours through their windows. She is a refugee, who has seen the failure of the Arab Spring in her homeland and who has been traumatized into silence by her brutal journey from Syria to Britain.

As an outsider, a mute voyeur, she sees everything, she hears everything: the love, the fighting, the families, the secrets, the lies, the sex, the shame. Slowly drawn into the community that surrounds her, she begins to come to terms with all she has lost. After a brutal attack on the local mosque, she realises she is the only witness to the truth behind the violence. But will she finally speak of all she's seen?

Rear Window meets Exit West, this beautifully written novel tells the powerful story of one woman's trauma and her gradual healing.