National Network for Equitable Library Service

Shortlisted, Amazon.ca First Novel Award, Ottawa Book Award, and Jim Connors Dartmouth Book AwardIn the backwoods of Nova Scotia, a man has decided to slowly simplify his life and withdraw his presence from the world. He builds a cabin, plants a garden. He befriends the few people he can reach within biking distance. He strikes up a relationship with a beautiful Huron-Wendat woman afflicted with wanderlust and who may be as damaged an individual as himself. In fits and starts, he begins to recount a story to his new friends, a tale of youthful passions, of idealism and rebellion, of love and of science. There is a reason for the man’s self-enforced exile, one that has implications far beyond the confines of the forest. As news reports trickle in of a brewing environmental catastrophe on a global scale, the unsettling nature of his confession becomes clear. And the world will never be the same again. Bold in themes, sensual in language, and astonishing in its implications, The Rest is Silence is a stunning achievement in literary fiction. Intimate in setting yet grand in scope, Scott Fotheringham has penned a frighteningly realistic portrait of the consequences we may all yet face for believing we had the right to crack open Pandora’s box.