The Silent Period: A Novel

In a novel of bilious wit and unexpected tenderness, a jaded young woman ceases to speak.

Cristina Martino is twenty-eight and adrift. Underemployed at a university library in Turin, Italy, she still lives at home with her parents, in the shadow of her successful, married elder sister, Elena. One night, listlessly scrolling through Instagram, Cristina decides to delete her social media profiles.

What is at first a digital detox becomes an act of self-effacement: Cristina deprives herself of w...