The Whispers by Ashley Audrain
CBC News | Posted: July 4, 2023 3:37 PM | Last Updated: July 4, 2023
Four families’ lives are changed when the unthinkable happens
On Harlow Street, the well-to-do neighborhood couples and their children gather for a catered barbecue as the summer winds down; drinks continue late into the night.
Everything is fabulous until the picture-perfect hostess explodes in fury because her son disobeys her. Everyone at the party hears her exquisite veneer crack—loud and clear. Before long, that same young boy falls from his bedside window in the middle of the night. And then, his mother can only sit by her son's hospital bed, where she refuses to speak to anyone, and his life hangs in the balance.
What happens next, over the course of a tense three days, as each of these women grapple with what led to that terrible night.
Exploring envy, women's friendships, desire, and the intuitions that we silence, The Whispers is a chilling novel that marks Audrain as a major women's fiction talent. (From Viking)
- What makes a 'good mother'? Writer Ashley Audrain explores the dark side of motherhood
- 40 Canadian books to read this summer
Ashley Audrain is the former publicity director of Penguin Canada. Her debut novel The Push was a New York Times bestseller. She currently lives in Toronto.