The Quiet
Published on 15. May 2025
Book
Hardback
352 pages
978-1-0350-5148-9 (ISBN)
Description
'Riveting. Martin weaves an inspired premise into an engrossing and wholly original adventure' - Ernest Cline, author of Ready Player One
A mother's love can be deafening . . .
Isaac is Hannah's entire world. If she lets her guard down, he will be taken from her.
When the Soundfield arrived twenty years ago, the world changed with it. Now, people are forced to live at night due to the deadly heat, food and water are scarce, and everyday life is punctuated by a constant and disconcerting hum.
Hannah spent her early career working on the enigma of the Soundfield, looking for answers; now, she focuses all her energy on keeping Isaac living, not just alive.
To do so, she will have to lie to the people she knows and hope she can trust the ones she doesn't.
The only thing more dangerous than her lies, is the truth of what she has done.
'As fascinating as it was terrifying' - Holly Seddon, author of The Woman on the Bridge
'The Quiet took my breath away. gripping, fiercely intelligent and quietly heartbreaking. I will think of Isaac for a long time to come' - Emma Kavanagh, author of To Catch A Killer
'A clever and unique dystopian premise, this was spare and tense, gripping and heartbreaking' - Louise Swanson, author of End of Story
A mother's love can be deafening . . .
Isaac is Hannah's entire world. If she lets her guard down, he will be taken from her.
When the Soundfield arrived twenty years ago, the world changed with it. Now, people are forced to live at night due to the deadly heat, food and water are scarce, and everyday life is punctuated by a constant and disconcerting hum.
Hannah spent her early career working on the enigma of the Soundfield, looking for answers; now, she focuses all her energy on keeping Isaac living, not just alive.
To do so, she will have to lie to the people she knows and hope she can trust the ones she doesn't.
The only thing more dangerous than her lies, is the truth of what she has done.
'As fascinating as it was terrifying' - Holly Seddon, author of The Woman on the Bridge
'The Quiet took my breath away. gripping, fiercely intelligent and quietly heartbreaking. I will think of Isaac for a long time to come' - Emma Kavanagh, author of To Catch A Killer
'A clever and unique dystopian premise, this was spare and tense, gripping and heartbreaking' - Louise Swanson, author of End of Story
Reviews / Votes
Riveting. Martin weaves an inspired premise into an engrossing and wholly original adventure -- Ernest Cline, author of <i>Ready Player One</i> An intellectually compelling, emotional and timely read. Martin has taken a motif of dystopian writing and films - a single parent and child - and has reworked it within a fresh landscape. The Quiet is a feat of writing that foregrounds the value of kindness and communication in a world bent on segregation and misinformation * The Bookseller * An extremely tense plot delivered through elegant prose. I found The Quiet as fascinating as it was terrifying -- Holly Seddon, author of <i>The Woman on the Bridge </i> The Quiet took my breath away. Gripping, fiercely intelligent and quietly heartbreaking. I will think of Isaac for a long time to come -- Emma Kavanagh, author of <i> To Catch A Killer</i> A dystopian thriller with heart. With echoes of The Road this is a really special book. It's about connection, about hope. Tense and utterly fascinating -- Carys Green, author of <i>Always on My Mind</i> What a beautiful book, whose final pages I literally read in complete quiet. A clever and unique dystopian premise, this was spare and tense, gripping and heartbreaking. Ultimately about the sacrifices we make for a beloved child -- Louise Swanson, author of <i>End of Story </i> The Quiet is a propulsive, cerebral sci-fi thriller that asks important questions about our world today. Martin conjures a chillingly believable dystopia, but never loses sight of the characters that are finding their way through this fragile landscape. Hannah and Isaac's bond is deeply felt and had me rooting for them from the very start -- Danielle Giles, author of <i>Mere </i> A haunting journey into an eerily oppressive, near-future dystopia in which a child's song could be their family's undoing, is deftly realised by Barnaby Martin and had me hooked from the very first page -- Leigh Radford, author of <i>One Yellow Eye </i>More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Pan Macmillan
Target group
Interest Age: From 18 years
Dimensions
Height: 163 mm
Width: 243 mm
Thickness: 35 mm
Weight
610 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-0350-5148-9 (9781035051489)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
05/2025
Macmillan
€14.49
Available for download
Person
Barnaby Martin is a multi-talented storyteller and creator. Besides his writing, he is an award-winning and self-taught composer, video essayist and teacher. His music has been performed widely in the UK and internationally by groups including the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of Opera North and Westminster Cathedral Choir. His YouTube channel, Listening In, which he began in 2019 and for which he makes videos that explore the cross-section between pop culture and classical music, has garnered over 200,000 subscribers and 10 million views. He studied natural sciences at Cambridge and now teaches in London, where he lives with his husband.