Recently announced as one of four Book Club picks for February on Zoe Ball’s Radio 2 breakfast show, The Silence Project is the debut novel by Pembrokeshire-based Carole Hailey. It takes in a global wave of self-femicide, a vow of silence, and the value of listening to one another. Accordingly, Hari Berrow heard more from Carole.
The Silence Project is the fictional memoir of Emilia Morris, whose mother – Rachel, a cult leader – burned herself to death, along with 21,000 other women around the world. ‘The Event’, as it is called, takes place eight years after Rachel moves into a tent at the bottom of the garden, and vows never to speak again.
“On one level it’s about a very complicated mother-daughter relationship,” Hailey explains of her debut novel [reviewed by Buzz here]. “It’s also about the idea of somebody doing something that seems quite benign – moving to the end of the garden and stopping speaking – and how that then snowballs into something completely out of her control. It’s about how people co-opt others’ ideas to their own ends. It’s about how nobody’s listening to anybody at the moment.”
Hailey cites our current political climate as the reason why silence is so enticing in the novel’s alternate version of the late 00s. “It came out of Brexit and Trump and the fact that everybody who has any form of political power seems to be shouting, and not listening to anybody else – what would it take for people to start listening again, properly listening?
“I think what’s so seductive about the idea of silence is how unusual it is. At the moment, there’s an absence of silence,” Hailey reflects. “I’m an inveterate interrupter of people. I’m not very good at silence! It makes me uncomfortable. I think silence is something that we don’t really experience anymore, either in conversation or just in life – it’s so difficult to go anywhere where you can’t hear other people or technology.”
Readers unfamiliar with the premise would be forgiven for thinking the book was a real autobiography. Hailey has used a mix of medias – fictitious memoir, email, article and book excerpts – as well as references to real historical events to make the novel feel as close to life as possible.
“At different points I drew in my own life experiences, and also the research I’d done into cults for my PhD,” Hailey explains. “Most cults, whether they’re religious or not, follow a very similar pattern in the way that they develop – and so, for the book to feel authentic as possible, it had to follow a particular pattern. A lot of the story was informed by external things rather than me coming up with a story and then writing it.
“Some of the references are to actual publications – the BBC, the Guardian, Atlantic magazine – but a lot of it’s made up. I partly just really enjoyed doing it, but also it was about authenticity: I wanted it to feel real, even though it’s patently a novel!” she smiles.
“I don’t go and look on NetGalley and GoodReads – I’ve been told not to do it – but I have seen some reader quotes where people are really tempted to follow the links in the book, and of course they don’t lead anywhere. To me, that’s what gives it its almost realistic feel. I wanted it to feel like it could have been real – like it could have happened.”
While the novel delves into many complex and heated subjects, more than anything else Hailey wants readers to enjoy reading her book. “I’d like them to finish and think, ‘that was a good one’. The reason I wrote this was to entertain people. It’s been described a lot now as sort of a political novel – I embrace that, I love that that’s how it’s been seen, but that isn’t what I set out to write.
“If, amongst enjoying the novel, people actually think a little about listening more to people, actually hearing what they’re saying, then that’s great. I don’t think we listen enough, either to other people or to ourselves. I don’t think people should just be silent for long periods of time; I don’t think silence generally is positive, but I do think listening is an absent art – including with me!
“But I don’t feel qualified to tell people how they should be living their lives. As I say, I didn’t write this to hammer the point home, I wrote it to entertain.”
The Silence Project is published on Thurs 9 Feb via Corvus. Price: £16.99. Info: here
Griffin Books are also hosting a launch event at All Saints Lesser Hall, Penarth, on Thurs 16 Feb. Tickets: £8/£5 NUS/£18 with a signed copy of the book. Info: here
words HARI BERROW
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