When We Were Silent
A gripping and addictive feminist dark academia thriller
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- £8.99
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- £8.99
Publisher Description
'Utterly amazing . . . Powerful, moving, enraging' Marian Keyes, bestselling author of RACHEL'S HOLIDAY
'A twisting, turning dive into a web of long-buried secrets' Jane Harper, internationally bestselling author of EXILES
“I’m not here for prestige. I’m here for revenge.”
Lou Manson is an outsider when she joins the final-year class at Highfield Manor, Dublin’s most exclusive private school. Beyond the granite pillars and the wrought-iron gates is a world of wealth, privilege and potential. But Highfield is also hiding a dark secret – and Lou is here to expose it.
When Lou befriends the beautiful and talented Shauna Power, her plans are thrown into turmoil. Speaking out against the school would mean betraying Shauna, and Lou soon discovers that the Highfield elite will go to any lengths to protect their own reputation…even when the consequences are fatal.
Thirty years later, Lou is called to testify in a new lawsuit against Highfield. But telling the truth means confronting her past – and there is one story she swore she’d never tell…
For fans of GIRL A, MY DARK VANESSA and ANATOMY OF A SCANDAL, When We Were Silent is a propulsive, bold exploration of power, corruption and retribution.
**Coming soon and available to pre-order now!**
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'Stunning . . . A powerful, unforgettable read' Andrea Mara, bestselling author of NO ONE SAW A THING
'Taut, compelling, powerful and devastatingly relevant' Louise O'Neill, bestselling author of IDOL
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Readers are already raving about When We Were Silent
'A compelling, powerful read that had me gripped from the start'
'The twists keep on coming, parts of the ending makes you gasp in shock and the rest makes you sigh in relief'
'I was immediately invested . . . The writing throughout is tight, poised and unflinching'
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A Dublin Catholic school's culture of silence proves deadly in Irish journalist McPhillips's searing debut novel. In 1986, 17-year-old Louise Manson enrolls at the prestigious Highfield Manor to avenge her best friend Tina, who got pregnant and killed herself after being repeatedly raped by Maurice McQueen, the school's gym teacher and swim coach. McQueen promptly molests Lou, but when she reports him to school authorities, nobody believes her. Desperate and furious, Lou hatches a plan to publicly expose McQueen that ends in someone's death. Thirty-plus years later, Lou—now a married professor with a teenage daughter—has worked hard to move past "the Highfield Affair." When an attorney asks her to testify on behalf of a 14-year-old suing Highfield for the "systemic cover-up of abuse in the school and the swimming club over decades," she reluctantly agrees. Then someone tries to extort her into staying silent, prompting Lou to again take matters into her own hands, with shattering results. McPhillips deftly alternates between past and present, maximizing suspense by playing multiple mysteries in each timeline off one another. With the added urgency of Lou's first-person-present narration, the author wrings her powerful plot for maximum impact. This is a triumph.