‘The Silence’ by Susan Allott is a book with many layers, deeply moving and gripping. Isla is in her thirties and in 1997, living in London. She receives a phone call from her dad in Australia, telling her he is being questioned about Mandy, a girl that occasionally babysat for Isla herself and lived next door, who went missing thirty years previously.

Isla returns to her homeland and childhood home. The storytime slips back to 1967 as well as keeping us up to date with the present day. We discover the state of the marriages between Mandy and her husband, Steve, who was a policeman who had to remove Aboriginal children from their homes and place them in a state institution, a generation of children now known as the “Stolen Generation”, and Isla’s parents too.

This subject alone is horrific and a shameful part of Australia and the UK’s past but has been written in a way that it does not weigh too heavily within the story. We see, Isla, with her own problems attempting to get to the bottom of the fact that her father is under suspicion and what really happened to Mandy. Will she really wish she hadn’t or not?

I found this a very character-driven plot and a very impressive story, which led me to search out more about the “Stolen Generation”. which is not a nice read alone, but I am glad I did those children deserve to be acknowledged. The setting of the book made me feel I was there and the writing was so skilful weaving the past and present together and moving the story forward in the author’s own way.

All in all, an educational, gripping and tense read at times, one which I am very glad to have had the chance to read. Thank you to Random Things Tours and Netgalley, for the ARC to review this book today.