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The Silence in Between

By: Josie Ferguson
Narrated by: Rosina Aichner, Josie Ferguson
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2024


The Silence in Between is a historical novel based in Berlin in 1961 and during the Second World War. Lisette lives in East Berlin but brings her new-born baby to a hospital in West Berlin. Under doctor's orders, she goes home to rest, leaving the baby in the care of the hospital. But overnight the border between East and West closes, slicing the city - and the world - in two. With a city in chaos and armed guards ordered to shoot anyone who tries to cross, her situation is desperate. Lisette's teenage daughter, Elly, has always struggled to understand the distance between herself and her mother. Both live for music but while Elly hears notes surrounding every person she meets, for her mother - once a talented pianist - the world has gone silent. Perhaps Elly can do something to bridge the gap between them. What begins as the flicker of an idea turns into a daring plan to escape East Berlin, find her baby brother, and bring him home....

Featuring music composed by Carl-Michael Bonde.

©2024 Josie Ferguson (P)2024 Penguin Audio
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What listeners say about The Silence in Between

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Amazing

Although, the subject was revisited on so many occasions (IIWW, East/West Berlin), the author beautifully intertwined sounds & music we carry within us or sometimes lose and reinvent after those dark times

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Absolutely wonderful

What a beautifully written and performed book. One of the best I have listened to. So touching, couldn’t put it down. Loved it.

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Wonderful story, perfect narration

A wonderful story, engaging characters, a heartbreaking journey through WWII Berlin… how women suffer at the hands of men and their stupid need to dominate others.
Loved the authentic narration with a German accent.

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Stunningly well read

This is a gripping story that doesn’t flinch from telling it how it was. The dreadful Post war revenge wreaked on women in East Berlin followed by the oppression of East Germans. It follows the fate of one family. The author uses music in a creative way as a metaphor. I sometimes struggled with this but otherwise thought she wrote beautifully.

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An amazing story

A really lovely uplifting story set during the war and alter when the wall went up in Berlin. Very interesting.

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Beautifully written

Story told so beautifully and with such detail and description all linked to the music that the main characters hear. This book relives a different aspect to what others endured during and after the war and the impact and devastation that it left which isn’t always written about.

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Tear jerker

This is such a gripping story, beautifully read. If you want to get a feel for how life in Germany must have been during WW2 and subsequently for East Germans trapped behind the Wall, this moving story of three generations of women feels close to the reality. It’s fiction but surely speaks for those who lived through the nightmare of that war and its aftermath.

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Oh my goodness,

The best book I have ever read. The story moved at the right pace, was extraordinary beautiful and heartbreaking. The narrator was exceptional, her voice slightly pained, as it would be due to the contents of the story. This book was so good that it will be some days before I listen to another book from audible as I can’t believe anything could possibly be as brilliant as this. It’s left me feeling I’ve been to the most beautiful place and don’t feel I will come down to earth for sometime. Both writer and narrator……….utterly wonderful.

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Loved this book and the narrator

Moving story, very thought provoking and a total page turner. Will recommend and it will be a book that I won't forget.

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Astonishing

One of the best and original books I have read in the past 5 years!

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