Questions for Reading groups
These questions are also included at the back of The Silence, for anyone who wants to incorporate them into their reading group discussion. Let me know in the comments if you want my input at your reading group, or if you have any further questions about The Silence that you’d like me to consider. I hope you have a good debate!
What do you think ‘The Silence’ of the title refers to?
The author writes from multiple points of view in the novel, switching point of view in each chapter. Do you think this is an effective way of telling the story? Do you think any perspectives are missing?
Louisa tells Isla, ‘We were going to leave all the old ways behind in England. It felt adventurous, like anything was possible.’ How is the experience of migration depicted in The Silence and how does it play into the problems in Louisa and Joe’s marriage?
The word ‘sorry’ recurs in the novel, and apologies sometimes come belatedly, or from the wrong person. Sometimes they are withheld entirely. Why do you think the word ‘sorry’ is important in The Silence?
Do you have any sympathy for Steve as a character? If so, how do you reconcile this with what he does?
Why do you think Isla’s grandma asks her to whisper her worst secret in her ear?
Andrea Walker says, ‘My mum used to say, [Steve] doesn’t take kids from nice families’. Isla thinks, ‘this might be funny if it were not so unspeakably sad.’ What do you think Isla means by this?
At the end of the novel, Isla decides to remember her father as ‘not all bad.’ How is memory significant in The Silence?
