Silence Is a Sense

A young woman sits in her apartment, watchingthe small daily dramas of her neighbors acrossthe way. She is an outsider, a mute voyeur, safebehind her windows, and she sees it allthe sex,the fights, the happy and unhappy families. Journeyingfrom her war-torn Syrian homeland to thisunnamed British city has traumatized her intosilence, and her only connection to the world isthe column she writes for a magazine under thepseudonym the Voiceless, where she tries to explainthe refugee experience without sensationalizingitor revealing anything about herself.

Gradually, though, the boundaries of herworld expand. She ventures to the corner store,to a bookstore and a laundromat, and to a gatheringat a nearby mosque. And it isnt long beforeshe finds herself involved in her neighbors lives.When an anti-Muslim hate crime rattles theneighborhood, she has to make a choice: Will sheremain a voiceless observer, or become an activeparticipant in a community that, despite her bestefforts, is quickly becoming her own?

Layla AlAmmar, a Kuwaiti-American writerand brilliant student of Arab literature, delivershere a complex and fluid book about memory,revolution, loss, and safety. Most of all,Silence isa Sensereminds us just how fundamental humanconnection is to survival.

Hardcover March 16, 2021