The Silent Period: A Novel

Summary

In a novel of bilious wit and unexpected tenderness, a jaded young woman ceases to speak.

Cristina Martino is twenty-eight and adrift. Underemployed at a university library in Turin, Italy, she still lives at home with her parents, in the shadow of her successful, married elder sister, Elena. One night, listlessly scrolling through Instagram, Cristina decides to delete her social media profiles.

What is at first a digital detox becomes an act of self-effacement: Cristina deprives herself of words, then gestures, then disappears altogether, sparking a growing "silent revolution." When Elena tries to find her, she discovers a world much quieter and stranger than anyone ever imagined. A slender novel of big ideas, The Silent Period probes at solitude—whether chosen or suffered, salvific or fatal—and our need for genuine connection.