The Silence (novel)

Last updated
The Silence
The Silence (Don DeLillo).png
First edition cover
Author Don DeLillo
Audio read by Laurie Anderson, Jeremy Bobb, Marin Ireland, Robin Miles, Jay O. Sanders and Michael Stuhlbarg
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Publisher Scribner
Publication date
October 20, 2020
Media typePrint (hardcover), e-book, audio
Pages128
ISBN 978-1-9821-6455-3 (hardcover)
Preceded by Zero K  

The Silence is a short novel by Don DeLillo. It was published by Scribner on October 20, 2020. [1] An audiobook version was released the same day, narrated by Laurie Anderson, Jeremy Bobb, Marin Ireland, Robin Miles, Jay O. Sanders and Michael Stuhlbarg. [2]

Contents

Synopsis

In 2022, on the night of the Super Bowl, Jim Kripps and his wife Tessa Berens are flying from Paris to their home in Newark, New Jersey when their plane crash-lands. In their Manhattan apartment, married couple Diane Lucas and Max Stenner are waiting for Jim and Tessa to arrive to their Super Bowl party. Martin Dekker, one of Diane's former physics students, is the only guest who has arrived. Suddenly, the world's technology systems go dark.

Reception

In its starred review, Kirkus Reviews called it a "vivid" book, and that "in its evocation of people in the throes of social crisis, it feels deeply resonant." [3]

Publishers Weekly praised DeLillo's "mastery of dialogue" and said the work stood out among DeLillo's short fiction but felt "underpowered" compared to his novels. [4]

Screen adaptation

In February 2021, Deadline Hollywood reported that producer Uri Singer acquired the screen rights to The Silence. Singer also produced Noah Baumbach's 2022 film White Noise , an adaptation of Delillo's novel of the same name. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don DeLillo</span> American novelist, playwright, and essayist

Donald Richard DeLillo is an American novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenwriter and essayist. His works have covered subjects as diverse as television, nuclear war, the complexities of language, art, mathematics, politics, economics, and baseball.

<i>Underworld</i> (novel) 1997 novel by Don DeLillo

Underworld is a 1997 novel by American writer Don DeLillo. The novel is centered on the efforts of Nick Shay, a waste management executive who grew up in the Bronx, to trace the history of the baseball that won the New York Giants the pennant in 1951, and encompasses numerous subplots drawn from American history in the second half of the twentieth century. Described as both postmodernist and a reaction to postmodernism, it examines themes of nuclear proliferation, waste, and the contribution of individual lives to the course of history.

<i>Libra</i> (novel) 1988 novel by Don DeLillo

Libra is a 1988 novel by Don DeLillo that describes the life of Lee Harvey Oswald and his participation in a fictional CIA conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. The novel blends historical fact with fictional supposition.

<i>White Noise</i> (novel) 1985 novel by Don DeLillo

White Noise is the eighth novel by Don DeLillo, published by Viking Press in 1985. It won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction.

<i>Mao II</i> 1991 novel by Don DeLillo

Mao II, published in 1991, is Don DeLillo's tenth novel. The book tells the story of a novelist, struggling to finish a novel, who travels to Lebanon to assist a writer being held hostage. The title is derived from a series of Andy Warhol silkscreen prints depicting Mao Zedong. DeLillo dedicated the book to his friend Gordon Lish. Major themes of the book include crowds and the effects of political terrorism. Mao II received positive reviews from critics and won the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1992.

<i>End Zone</i> Novel by Don DeLillo

End Zone is Don DeLillo's second novel, published in 1972.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tessa Thompson</span> American actress (born 1983)

Tessa Lynne Thompson is an American actress. She began her professional acting career with the Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company while studying at Santa Monica College, appearing in productions of The Tempest and Romeo and Juliet. Her breakthrough came with leading roles in Tina Mabry's independent drama film Mississippi Damned (2009) and Tyler Perry's For Colored Girls (2010).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Winslow</span> American writer

Don Winslow is an American retired author best known for his award-winning and internationally bestselling crime novels, including Savages, The Force and the Cartel Trilogy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonya Sones</span> American poet and author

Sonya Sones is an American poet and author. She has written seven young adult novels in verse and one novel in verse for adults. The American Library Association (ALA) has named her one of the most frequently challenged authors of the 21st century.

Threshold Editions is an imprint of book publisher Simon & Schuster, a division of Paramount Global, specializing in conservative non-fiction. The imprint was co-founded by Mary Matalin, serving as its first editor-in-chief, and Louise Burke, who served as publisher until 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Federle</span> American author, actor, director and screen writer

Tim Federle is an American author, theater librettist, director and screenwriter whose best-known works include the novel Better Nate Than Ever, the cocktail recipe book Tequila Mockingbird, the Golden Globe Award and Academy Awards nominee Ferdinand, and Disney's High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.

<i>Point Omega</i> Novel by Don DeLillo

Point Omega is a short novel by the American author Don DeLillo that was published in hardcover by Scribner's on February 2, 2010. It is DeLillo's fifteenth novel published under his own name and his first published work of fiction since his 2007 novel Falling Man.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patti Kim (writer)</span> American novelist (born 1970)

Patti Kim is a Korean American writer, a Diane Cleaver fellow and the author of the award-winning novel A Cab Called Reliable, children's picture book Here I Am (Capstone), middle grade novel, I'm Ok, and middle grade novel, It's Girls Like You, Mickey (Atheneum).

Severn House Publishers is an independent publisher of fiction in hardcover and ebooks. Severn House specialises in publishing mid-list authors in both the UK and the USA. Established in 1974, Severn House began republishing out-of-print titles by popular library authors. The publishing house now specialises in providing libraries and the public worldwide with reinforced editions of brand new contemporary fiction, as well as rare or previously unpublished works. Since 2011, Crème de la Crime has been part of Severn House Publishers. In September 2017, Severn House was acquired by Canongate Books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uri Singer</span> Businessman and film producer

Uri Singer, is a businessman and film producer. He is the owner and CEO of Passage Pictures, under which he has produced multiple award-winning films.

<i>Lily and the Octopus</i> 2016 debut novel by Steven Rowley

Lily and the Octopus is the 2016 debut novel of Steven Rowley.

<i>Zero K</i> (novel) 2016 novel by Don DeLillo

Zero K is a 2016 novel by American author Don DeLillo.

<i>After</i> (2019 film) 2019 American film

After is a 2019 American romantic drama film directed by Jenny Gage and written by Gage, Susan McMartin and Tamara Chestna, based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Anna Todd. The film stars Josephine Langford and Hero Fiennes Tiffin and follows an inexperienced teenage girl who begins to romance a mysterious student during her first months of college. The cast includes Selma Blair, Inanna Sarkis, Shane Paul McGhie, Pia Mia, Khadijha Red Thunder, Dylan Arnold, Samuel Larsen, Jennifer Beals and Peter Gallagher in supporting roles.

<i>White Noise</i> (2022 film) Film by Noah Baumbach

White Noise is a 2022 American absurdist comedy-drama film written and directed by Noah Baumbach, adapted from the 1985 novel with the same title by Don DeLillo. It is Baumbach's first directed feature not to be based on an original story of his own. The film stars Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle, Raffey Cassidy, and Sam and May Nivola. Set in the 1980s, the story follows the life of a niche academic and his family as they go through trials and tribulations, including an environmental disaster near their home and a fear of death that leads the wife to prostitute herself for an experimental medication.

<i>Luster</i> (novel) 2020 debut novel by Raven Leilani

Luster is a 2020 debut novel by Raven Leilani. It follows a young Black woman who gets involved with a middle-aged white man in an open marriage. Luster was released on August 4, 2020 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. It received mainly positive critical reception and won the 2020 Kirkus Prize for fiction. In December 2020, the novel was found in Literary Hub to have made 16 lists of the year's best books.

References

  1. "The Silence: A Novel by Don DeLillo". Simon & Schuster . Retrieved October 15, 2020.
  2. "The Silence". Simon & Schuster . Retrieved October 15, 2020.
  3. "The Silence by Don DeLillo". Kirkus Reviews . July 14, 2020. Retrieved October 15, 2020.
  4. "Fiction Book Review: The Silence by Don DeLillo". Publishers Weekly . July 14, 2020. Retrieved October 15, 2020.
  5. N'Duka, Amanda (February 24, 2021). "'White Noise' Producer Uri Singer Acquires Rights To Don DeLillo's 'The Silence'". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved September 10, 2021.