The Silent Treatment (US edition)

On sale 7th April 2020

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**Resonant with the emotional power of the bestselling novels of David Nicholls and Jojo Moyes, a rich and poignant debut about lies, loss, and a transcendent love at the heart of a troubled marriage.**

A lifetime together.
Six months of silence.
One last chance.
By all appearances, Frank and Maggie share a happy, loving marriage. But for the past six months, they have not spoken. Not a sentence, not a single word. Maggie isn’t sure what, exactly, provoked Frank’s silence, though she has a few ideas.
Day after day, they have eaten meals together and slept in the same bed in an increasingly uncomfortable silence that has become, for Maggie, deafening.
Then Frank finds Maggie collapsed in the kitchen, unconscious, an empty package of sleeping pills on the table. Rushed to the hospital, she is placed in a medically induced coma while the doctors assess the damage.
If she regains consciousness, Maggie may never be the same. Though he is overwhelmed at the thought of losing his wife, will Frank be able to find his voice once again—and explain his withdrawal—or is it too late?

Testimonials

‘Written with the emotional resonance of a lifelong storyteller and the compassionate heart of a dear friend The Silent Treatment is a careful study of love, identity and compassion.’

BookReporter

A remarkable debut which doesn’t go where you expect it to go. I very much look forward to seeing what she writes next.

Jojo Moyes

“The premise alone had me, but the book itself is just heartrendingly lovely. It’s beautiful, so moving and clever. I truly adored it”

Josie Silver, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of One Day in December

‘Such stunning prose, and such insight for a debut author… I was bowled over by Abbie’s writing.’

Clare Mackintosh

“Greaves finds extraordinary in the ordinary, carefully pulling apart this seemingly happy marriage to reveal the guilt and desperation that lie beneath. Frank and Maggie’s struggle to define themselves when life doesn’t meet their expectations is full of intensity and emotion, their love for one another the only constant. With the sincerity and hope of Tayari Jones' An American Marriage (2018) and the thoughtful, circumspect snapshots of marriage in Lauren Groff's Fates and Furies (2015), Greaves' debut depicts the many joys and sorrows that make up a marriage.”

Booklist

“Abbie Greaves held me spellbound with this intimate, emotional story of the brutal power of silence and ostracism. Yet this deep dive into a troubled marriage is ultimately uplifting as Frank and Maggie make their way through the challenges of isolation, mental health, ageing, and the yearning for connection. Keep the tissues handy for this lovely read.”

Susan Wiggs, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of The Oysterville Sewing Circle

“Greaves writes their distinct voices expressively and assuredly, making both characters come alive. Their struggle to help their daughter as she flounders is both realistic and moving, and it’s almost impossible not to like Frank and Maggie as they do everything they can to save her. A sometimes-hopeful, often heartbreaking look at the difficult and beautiful moments of parenting and marriage.”

Kirkus Reviews

In an urgent race against the clock, the layers of Frank and Maggie's decades-long love story are peeled back to reveal the heartrending secrets that lurk below. But will the truth save Maggie's life, let alone their marriage? Greaves's gripping and poignant debut had me hooked from beginning to end.

Meg Donohue, USA Today Bestselling author of All the Summer Girls and You, Me and the Sea

“In her tremendously moving debut, a novel that pulses with emotional tension, Abbie Greaves masterfully unpicks a history of ordinary lives facing extraordinary challenges. I found it impossible to look away from the relationship at the heart of this novel”

Gilly Macmillan, New York Times Bestselling Author of What She Knew

“ A gorgeous heartbreaker of a novel—an intimate, unpretentious, precisely drawn and surprisingly suspenseful look at a decades-long marriage: how it soars and plummets and, gem-like, alters its appearance under different lights. Abbie Greaves has a bright future and I can’t wait to see what it brings.”

Meg Mitchell Moore, author of Two Truths and a Lie & The Islanders

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