What a love story. The concept for this book is clever.  A middle aged couple don’t speak to each other for six months, despite loving each other deeply and this leads to catastrophic consequences.  It takes the whole novel for us to discover why Maggie receives The Silent Treatment and in the meantime the narrative weaves across the histories of their forty year marriage, but it’s never dull.  It’s a dual narrative with Frank, retired academic and Maggie, the ever-practical nurse.

Abbie was inspired to write her debut novel after reading about a Japanese boy who had never heard his parents speak to one another.

The character of Frank – painfully aware of his own shortcomings and glacial to act is one not often shown in fiction as he is so ineffectual but there is a real fondness and warmth for his devotion to his wife.

By the end of the book the notion of love seeped through the pages to make me consider yearning, loss and the nature of love, relationships.

Abbie Greaves has a very easy writing style that jounces along and I look forward to more emotionally driven and intelligent novels from her. She is a Novel Nights guest speaker and you can join the discussion on video: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/aw2hte7y