“Spellbinding, shimmering, visceral…Ashley Audrain is in a league of her own.”
—Lisa Jewell, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Family Remains
A propulsive page-turner about four families whose lives are changed when the unthinkable happens—and what is lost when we give in to our own worst impulses
On Harlow Street, the well-to-do neighborhood couples and their children gather for a catered barbecue as the summer winds down; drinks continue late into the night.
Everything is fabulous until the picture-perfect hostess explodes in fury because her son disobeys her. Everyone at the party hears her exquisite veneer crack—loud and clear. Soon after, that same young boy falls from his bedside window in the middle of the night. And then, his mother can only sit by her son’s hospital bed, where she refuses to speak to anyone, including her best friend who lives across the street.
What follows is the unravelling of four families on this street, as they try to understand what happened that night, and what secrets are being kept between friends and neighbours, ones that connect them all in ways they don’t know.
Exploring envy, women’s friendships, desire, and the intuitions that we silence, The Whispers is a chilling novel that marks Audrain as a major women’s fiction talent.
“Enticing, nuanced, and unflinching”
–Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid
“No one understands the secret lives of women like Ashley Audrain… Masterful!”
—Carley Fortune, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Meet Me At The Lake
“Riveting… a brilliant, deeply affecting novel you won’t soon forget.”
—Shari Lapena, New York Times bestselling author of Everyone Here Is Lying
“[A] standout work of literary suspense… Both artful and pulse pounding.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review