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A Novel
by Bridget Collins
From the acclaimed author of the #1 international bestseller The Binding—a captivating story of gothic suspense about a powerful family, the magical and dangerous silk their fortune is built upon, and the exploitative history they are desperately trying to hide.
1820: Sophia Ashmore-Percy reluctantly accompanies her husband James to a remote Greek island, where he searches for rare biological specimens. Once there, however, she sets on her own voyage of discovery—stumbling across the very creature he is looking for, making an unexpected connection with a local woman, and ultimately reconsidering her marriage, life, and own desires.
Decades later, audiologist Henry Latimer is sent to the home of industrialist Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy and tasked with curing the man's young daughter, Philomel, of her deafness. But Henry, eager to escape a troubled past, quickly becomes obsessed with the fascinating nature of Sir Edward's business: spinning silk with a rare and magical breed of spiders. The extraordinary silk shields sound, offering respite from bustling streets and noisy neighbors. The result is instant tranquility, as wearers experience a soothing calmness. Yet, those within earshot of the outward-facing silk are subjected to eerie murmurs that amplify with proximity. Bystanders suffer the consequences of this unnerving phenomenon, manifesting in physical and mental afflictions ranging from headaches and drowsiness to severe cases of madness.
As Henry becomes entangled in the allure of the silk and Sir Edward's charm, he glimpses a more sinister family history. The closer he ventures into the inner circle of Carthmute House, the more he unravels the horrifying underbelly of the silk business.
With Bridget Collins's signature, stunning prose, The Silence Factory is an equally enthralling and unsettling gothic story about complicity, desire, and corruption—a novel to lose yourself in.
"Though Collins answers the provocative questions she raises about the relationship between industry and nature with a too-convenient deus ex machina, she brings a Dickensian richness to her depiction of the grim factory conditions. Thanks to its clever speculative twist, this stands out from the pack of Victorian historicals." —Publishers Weekly
"I loved it. A delicately woven novel with an utterly original premise, it ensnared me from the very first page." —Emilia Hart, bestselling author of Weyward
"I loved Bridget Collins' last two novels so much I was almost nervous to read this one in case it didn't live up to my feverish expectations. I was wrong: in The Silence Factory she has created another world that exists on the edge of time and magic. Epic in scope and rich at sentence level, this is storytelling at its most immersive" —Erin Kelly, author of Skeleton Key
"Extraordinary writing… silk, secrets and silence woven into a gleaming Gothic web. What a treat" —Anna Mazzola, author of The Unseeing
This information about The Silence Factory was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Bridget Collins is the international bestselling author of The Binding and The Betrayals. She is also the author of seven acclaimed books for young adults and has had two plays produced, one at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Bridget trained as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art after reading English at King's College, Cambridge. She lives in Kent, United Kingdom.
Libby Lost and Found
by Stephanie Booth
Libby Lost and Found is a book for people who don't know who they are without the books they love.
These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
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