The Weight of Silence

By: Heather Gudenkauf

Narrated by: Jim Colby, Eliza Foss, Cassandra Morris, Andy Paris, Therese Plummer, Tony Ward

It happens quietly one August morning. As dawn's shimmering light drenches the humid Iowa air, two families awaken to find their little girls have gone missing in the night. Seven-year-old Calli Clark is sweet, gentle, a dreamer who suffers from selective mutism brought on by tragedy that pulled her deep into silence as a toddler. Calli's mother, Antonia, tried to be the best mother she could within the confines of marriage to a mostly absent, often angry husband. Now, though she denies that her husband could be involved in the possible abductions, she fears her decision to stay in her marriage has cost her more than her daughter's voice.

Petra Gregory is Calli's best friend, her soul mate and her voice. But neither Petra nor Calli has been heard from since their disappearance was discovered.

Desperate to find his child, Martin Gregory is forced to confront a side of himself he did not know existed beneath his intellectual, professorial demeanor.

Now these families are tied by the question of what happened to their children. And the answer is trapped in the silence of unspoken family secrets.

©2009 Heather Gudenkauf (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

• Edgar Award Finalist, Best First Novel, 2010

"Every so often you get really lucky, and a book comes along that just knocks your socks off: an absorbing, engrossing, suspenseful read that you just want to keep paging through, a novel that feels a lot like running downhill - fast and a little breathless - until it all winds down and wraps up. The Weight of Silence is exactly this kind of book.... Jodi Picoult has some serious competition in Heather Gudenkauf. [She is] an author to watch.” (Bookreporter.com)

"Deeply moving and exquisitely lyrical, this is a powerhouse of a debut novel. Heather Gudenkauf is one of those rare writers who can tell a tale with the skill of a poet while simultaneously cranking up the suspense until it's unbearable." (Tess Gerritsen)

"Gudenkauf moves the story forward at a fast clip and is adept at building tension. There's a particular darkness to her heartland, rife as it is with predators and the walking wounded, and her unsentimental take on the milieu manages to find some hope without being maudlin." ( Publishers Weekly)

Not everyones cup of tea

I found this a very good listening, I don`t suppose everyone will love it, but it is a good story and read by different people for different charactors

An Unsettling, Engrossing Family/Community Drama

I downloaded and started this book, stopped for lack of interest and removed it from my iPhone. A week later, because I couldn't quite get it out of my mind, reloaded it and began to listen again. So glad I did. It was worth the time, even though this is a somewhat horrendous family drama that consumes a small community and is a story that makes you hurt while listening.

A true love left unfulfilled, a child's selective mutism, an alcoholic parent, and domestic violence make for a good deal of gloom and drama. Yet there are amazing bright, wonderful parts of the book, especially the relationship between two little six year old girls and the way in which brother Ben becomes a young hero in more ways than one.

I rather liked the narrations -- each reader giving voice to a different character. All seemed very appropriate, except Ben's voice could have/should have been a bit more adolescent.

The prologue of this story wraps things up with a perfect bow -- almost too perfectly I think. Most events of this type don't have happy endings across the board for all those involved. Some wounds simply don't heal without deep, enduring scars and real life is quite a bit more complicated than this author conceived.

Nevertheless, a good read.

A compelling, emotional story of two missing girls

Early one August morning, two families discover their little girls are missing. Calli Clark and Petra Gregory are seven years old, and best friends. Calli, following a family tragedy when she was four, suffers from selective mutism. There's nothing physically wrong, but she hasn't spoken in three years. Petra, her best friend, is adept at being Calli's voice, able to understand and articulate what Calli wants to say.

And now they are both missing.

Calli's abusive, alcoholic father, Griff, is supposed to be on a fishing trip with his friend, Roger, but when Roger is finally located, Griff isn't with him.

Calli's mother, Antonia, and her brother, Ben, as well as Petra's father, Martin Gregory, and the local deputy sheriff, Loris Lewis, who was Antonia's first boyfriend, each get their own alternating chapters, unfolding the story from their viewpoints. Calli's is the only one told in third person, past tense, which is a nice touch.

What the reader, or listener, knows that the adult characters don't, is that the girls aren't together, and they are both alive. There is no guarantee they will remain so, and much reason to fear they won't. Griff is the prime suspect, and whether or not it's him, there was another little girl who previously disappeared, and was found, eventually, murdered and abused.

I found the characters compelling, and the story engrossing. There is one scene, that we see, ultimately, from the viewpoints of Antonia, Calli, Martin, and Lewis, in every case stopping at telling us that Calli spoke just one word, and not telling us the word until the fifth telling of it. That was maddening, entirely too much of drawing out that one particular detail to no real narrative purpose, but that was, for me, the only major storytelling failure. Otherwise, I really enjoyed this book.

Flashbacks further enrich the story, helping us understand how the characters got to this point, and the complex connections among them. Griff is an abusive, alcoholic husband and father, and some of Antonia's choices may be hard to understand for people unfamiliar with how abuse affects the victim's ability to see themselves as even having the right to be treated better. Abused spouses don't leave because their ability to make that decision and act on it has been damaged by the abuse. They feel shame and guilt, too often, instead of the anger that would allow them to get out. (This is aside from the fact that help in getting away from a dangerous spouse is often far less available than those who've never experienced it fondly believe.)

Overall, a good, rewarding story.

Recommended.

I bought this audiobook.

Gudenkauf's BEST !

Excellent story, made even better by the readers. I appreciated the story (even if I related too well to parts), but the variety of narrators, made listening to the book even more enjoyable. I have read a couple other books by Heather Gudenkauf, but this was by far her best to date.

Great book.

Loved it. I was unsure if I would like this book or not, but it kept my attention through the whole book.

slow start but really gets good towards the end

I was interesting after hearing the sample and reading the description so I decided to go for it. I'm glad I hung on fr the beginning because it really picked up and I found myself towards the ends just desperately wanting to find out what happens. the Author did a good job with giving you just enough to feel like you were uncovering the mystery but kept you hanging until the very end.

Overall I'd recommend this book..

It took me a bit to warm up to it. But then...

somehow I was drawn into the whole story. I enjoyed the performers. I also liked the ending.

Sad story about a broken family

It kept me interested but sad. Good depth to the characters. Very good narration. I liked having a different voice for each character.

Good read

I enjoyed this novel. Charming & warm yet bittersweet throughout. It will stay with you long after you have finished listening. The narrators do an excellent job as well.

Recommend

This is a great book, I loved listening to all the different characters and their voices!