Whistle in the Dark (Wheeler Publishing Large Print Hardcover)
Emma Healey follows the success of her #1 internationally bestselling debut novel Elizabeth Is Missing, winner of the Costa First Novel Award, with this beautiful, thought-provoking, and psychologically complex tale that affirms her status as one of the most inventive and original literary novelists today. Jen and Hugh Maddox have just survived every parent's worst nightmare. Relieved, but still terrified, they sit by the hospital bedside of their fifteen-year-old daughter, Lana, who was found bloodied, bruised, and disoriented after going missing for four days during a mother-daughter vacation in the country. As Lana lies mute in bed, unwilling or unable to articulate what happened to her during that period, the national media speculates wildly and Jen and Hugh try to answer many questions.
Where was Lana? How did she get hurt? Was the teenage boy who befriended her involved? How did she survive outside for all those days? Even when she returns to the family home and her school routine, Lana only provides the same frustrating answer over and over: "I can't remember."
For years, Jen had tried to soothe the depressive demons plaguing her younger child, and had always dreaded the worst. Now she has hope--the family has gone through hell and come out the other side. But Jen cannot let go of her need to find the truth. Without telling Hugh or their pregnan older daughter Meg, Jen sets off to retrace Lana's steps, a journey that will lead her to a deeper understanding of her youngest daughter, her family, and herself.
A wry, poignant, and masterful novel that explores the bonds and duress of family life, the pain of mental illness, and the fraught yet enduring connection between mothers and daughters, Whistle in the Dark is a story of guilt, fear, hope, and love that explores what it means to lose and find ourselves and those we love.
Where was Lana? How did she get hurt? Was the teenage boy who befriended her involved? How did she survive outside for all those days? Even when she returns to the family home and her school routine, Lana only provides the same frustrating answer over and over: "I can't remember."
For years, Jen had tried to soothe the depressive demons plaguing her younger child, and had always dreaded the worst. Now she has hope--the family has gone through hell and come out the other side. But Jen cannot let go of her need to find the truth. Without telling Hugh or their pregnan older daughter Meg, Jen sets off to retrace Lana's steps, a journey that will lead her to a deeper understanding of her youngest daughter, her family, and herself.
A wry, poignant, and masterful novel that explores the bonds and duress of family life, the pain of mental illness, and the fraught yet enduring connection between mothers and daughters, Whistle in the Dark is a story of guilt, fear, hope, and love that explores what it means to lose and find ourselves and those we love.
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About the Author:
EMMA HEALEY grew up in London, where she completed her first degree in bookbinding and completed a MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia in 2011. She lives in the UK.
Review:
"An atmospheric novel which twists the happy-ever-after tale of a family being reunited with their missing teenage daughter into a gripping psychological thriller, questioning exactly what happened when she disappeared. . . . The claustrophobic relationship between severely depressed Lana and her mum Jen is deftly drawn as the mystery of the teenager's disappearance deepens. Exploring the supernatural, mental health trauma, family relationships and teenage life in the age of social media, suspense is maintained throughout as Jen hunts down various possible explanations and the eventual revelation packs an emotional punch." --The Irish News
"Emma Healey announced herself as a writer of rare idiosyncratic promise with her best-selling and award-winning debut Elizabeth Is Missing. . . . Here, in a bold move, the novel's interest is not Lana but her dull, well-intentioned mother Jen, totally ill-equipped to help her difficult daughter, and who thus starts to go a bit mad herself. These are emotional and topical themes for a novel." --Metro News
"Follow-ups to successful first novels can be lacking in emotional integrity, but where Elizabeth Is Missing was sweetly affecting, Whistle in the Dark has the sting of first-hand experience. . . . Despite the seriousness of her subjects, there's a winning irreverence to Healey's writing. . . . It has a lightness of touch that makes this a rare convincingly digital novel." --The Guardian
"Healey fashions this novel in titled sections, ranging in length from a few lines to a few pages, a technique that advances the narration, along with flashbacks, while eliminating extraneous details and building suspense naturally. The result is an absorbing view of a family, with the emphasis on the mother daughter connection, in which--flaws aside--love shines through." --Booklist, (starred review)
"Healey's middle-class family is drawn with canny-eyed clarity. . . . The most compelling aspect of the novel, though, is the painful pathos in Jen and Lana's relationship; Jen's helplessness in observing Lana's depression is piercing. . . . Healey captures Jen's desperate attempts to be close to her daughter . . . In the end, it is this interpersonal drama . . . that gives the novel its heart." --The Guardian "I don't know anyone else who writes like this. Emma Healey's voice soars, sings and startles as she takes you right under the skin of her characters. She 'magics' the ordinary into the extraordinary and, just as impressively, transposes the extraordinary to the ordinary. Unforgettable." --Jane Corry, author of My Husband's Wife and Blood Sisters "Emma Healey is a natural storyteller, and I knew from the opening page that I would be in safe hands. She expertly shows what it's like to have a depressed teenage daughter--all the love, the worries, and frustrations were perfectly observed, while still managing to bring out the comic side of modern family life, and wrap it in a story that urged me to keep reading to find out what happened." --Claire Fuller, author of Swimming Lessons
"Emma Healey announced herself as a writer of rare idiosyncratic promise with her best-selling and award-winning debut Elizabeth Is Missing. . . . Here, in a bold move, the novel's interest is not Lana but her dull, well-intentioned mother Jen, totally ill-equipped to help her difficult daughter, and who thus starts to go a bit mad herself. These are emotional and topical themes for a novel." --Metro News
"Follow-ups to successful first novels can be lacking in emotional integrity, but where Elizabeth Is Missing was sweetly affecting, Whistle in the Dark has the sting of first-hand experience. . . . Despite the seriousness of her subjects, there's a winning irreverence to Healey's writing. . . . It has a lightness of touch that makes this a rare convincingly digital novel." --The Guardian
"Healey fashions this novel in titled sections, ranging in length from a few lines to a few pages, a technique that advances the narration, along with flashbacks, while eliminating extraneous details and building suspense naturally. The result is an absorbing view of a family, with the emphasis on the mother daughter connection, in which--flaws aside--love shines through." --Booklist, (starred review)
"Healey's middle-class family is drawn with canny-eyed clarity. . . . The most compelling aspect of the novel, though, is the painful pathos in Jen and Lana's relationship; Jen's helplessness in observing Lana's depression is piercing. . . . Healey captures Jen's desperate attempts to be close to her daughter . . . In the end, it is this interpersonal drama . . . that gives the novel its heart." --The Guardian "I don't know anyone else who writes like this. Emma Healey's voice soars, sings and startles as she takes you right under the skin of her characters. She 'magics' the ordinary into the extraordinary and, just as impressively, transposes the extraordinary to the ordinary. Unforgettable." --Jane Corry, author of My Husband's Wife and Blood Sisters "Emma Healey is a natural storyteller, and I knew from the opening page that I would be in safe hands. She expertly shows what it's like to have a depressed teenage daughter--all the love, the worries, and frustrations were perfectly observed, while still managing to bring out the comic side of modern family life, and wrap it in a story that urged me to keep reading to find out what happened." --Claire Fuller, author of Swimming Lessons
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- PublisherWheeler Publishing Large Print
- Publication date2018
- ISBN 10 1432858637
- ISBN 13 9781432858636
- BindingLibrary Binding
- Number of pages549
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Whistle in the Dark (Wheeler Publishing Large Print Hardcover)
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