Penelope, a writer passing a dreary middle-age, struggles to start her new novel. She lands an invitation to a conference that hosts a speaker whom she once loved, until he suddenly disappeared from her life, decades ago—unannounced. Deeming it impossible to avoid re-living the pain, anger, and mourning that followed the earlier years of her abandonment, Penelope devises a way to channel this surge of emotional tumult through the protagonist of her story, Julie—herself a writer, romantically disposed unlike present day Penelope. Julie’s stories feature a lovesick Henry, whose removal from reality leads to tales that are so consumed by passion that they cannot survive. But the fervor with which the story wants to express itself, it rises from the ash and follows Henry in his journey to redeem his love. Henry’s impossible and flamboyant quests for his beloved Echo, a trophy wife of a lecherous overlord, stand to shape Penelope’s own bearing leading up to her impending reunion with her old lover.
Echo Of The Silence
Blurb for Echo of the Silence
This debut novel is an exhilarating intellectual journey that calls to mind favorite classics, as a story unfolds within a story within a story. The protagonist Penelope is a writer struggling to tell a story, searching for the right narrator, as she tries to understand a real loss in her life. We are led through many narrators to the story of Henry, the hero of her story, who himself is on a journey of self-discovery and meaning through many archetypal figures–among them Zeus, Artemis, and Hermes– that lead the reader to make more literary associations with myth and classic texts. I found myself caught again and again in delicious conundrums. If we are presented with a male protagonist through a woman writer, then whose perspective are we really reading? I was blown away by the language, the confidence, and the prose of this extraordinary, unique novel. Echo of the Silence is enjoyable on many levels and many reads, a great book club pick.
– Gemini Wahhaj, Author of The Children of This Madness.