Book of the Month: After The Silence is the most thrilling tale
Autumn is on its way and along with the crunchy leaves, cooler mornings and pumpkin spice lattes, it is bringing a ridiculous number of new books into our lives.
The sheer volume of books set for release this autumn is overwhelming, but there is one stand out story that you just have to pick up this month.
Louise O’Neill’s After The Silence will be published on September 3 and you’ll be glued to it from the very first page.
I couldn’t not pick the West Cork author’s gripping new novel as our September book of the month. There is simply no author quite like Louise O’Neill at the moment. Her previous books have sparked vital conversations on our island, helped women find their voices, and offered escapism during harrowing moments.
My copy of her novel The Surface Breaks will forever be one of my most precious belongings. It is the book that kept me company when I sat in St. James’s Hospital for 13 hours after my Mam suffered a seizure and was put into an induced coma. It was the scariest moment of my life, but that book offered me the escape I desperately needed. Louise’s words offered me a sense of comfort as we waited for doctors to update us on whether or not my Mam would wake up. I sat in that plastic chair for what felt like a lifetime, surrounded by strangers with broken arms, black eyes and bleeding noses.
That book helped me feel less alone and distracted my mind from thinking the worst. And I think that's the most magical thing about books, they have the power to comfort us even in our darkest hour.
I felt strangely reassured when I heard about the publication of After The Silence. It is a story much darker than my favourite Louise O’Neill book, The Surface Breaks, but like her previous stories, this book will take us away from the day-to-day troubles and the woes that fill our minds.
After The Silence is a thrilling, page turner that you won’t be able to put down.
It follows the mystery surrounding the murder of Nessa Crowley.
Nessa Crowley's murderer has been protected by silence for ten years.
Until a team of documentary makers decide to find out the truth.
On the day of Henry and Keelin Kinsella's wild party at their big house a violent storm engulfed the island of Inisrun, cutting it off from the mainland. When morning broke Nessa Crowley's lifeless body lay in the garden, her last breath silenced by the music and the thunder.
The killer couldn't have escaped Inisrun, but on-one was charged with the murder. The mystery that surrounded the death of Nessa remained hidden. But the islanders knew who to blame for the crime that changed them forever.
Ten years later a documentary crew arrives, there to lift the lid off the Kinsella's carefully constructed lives, determined to find evidence that will prove Henry's guilt and Keelin's complicity in the murder of beautiful Nessa.
You can order your copy here. After The Silence is published by Quercus.
Feature Image: Anna Groniecka
