The
Silence
that
Remains
A Novel
MEG WINGERTER
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ABOUT
THE
BOOK
The Silence that Remains
A life of secrets...
The famine that decimated Annushka’s village officially never happened. Since she was a child, she’s kept quiet about what she saw in an implicit bargain with the Soviet regime: behave, and you might live to see your parents again.
She survives by keeping her head down and cultivating the image of a loyal, if not terribly bright, citizen. When the Nazi invasion of Ukraine forces her to flee east, however, she meets people as disillusioned as herself: Diana, a former ballerina pressed into serving as a concubine for a powerful man; and Viktor, a haunted veteran returning from imprisonment in a labor camp. With them, she finally feels free to speak the truth.
But this is Stalin's Russia...
. . . and anyone can betray her. The Silence that Remains is a sweeping historical epic that takes readers from Paris to the far reaches of Siberia, and from the battlefields of World War I to the end of the gulag system. But it is also a deep exploration of what decent people do when prosperity, and even survival, depend on falling in line behind one of history’s most brutal dictators and his devoted enforcers.
“Wingerter weaves a harrowing but hopeful tale of ordinary people caught up in the extraordinary events of 20th-century Russia and the Soviet Union, where ‘there are a thousand easy ways to wreck your life.’ Even readers who know little about that time and place will find it easy to become engrossed in the lives of her vivid characters as they face the ravages of war, corruption, and exploitation with stoic courage and sardonic wit. How much of their dignity and humanity will they be asked to trade for their survival, and where will they draw the line? It’s a question that has reverberated for too many people too many times throughout history, but Wingerter’s fresh take on it is riveting.”
Andy Marso
Author of Worth the Pain: How Meningitis Nearly Killed Me — Then Changed My Life for the Better and The Klinefelter Legacy: A Story of Faith, Family, and Forgiveness
“Unforgettable. The Silence that Remains is deeply researched and powerfully written. A terrifying vision of a time when dreams of a better world were twisted into nightmares.”
Alex Miller
Author of Osama Bin Laden is Dead
ABOUT
THE
AUTHOR
Meg Wingerter
Meg (Hart) Wingerter started writing this book right out of college, because pens, notebooks, and library books were about all she could afford for entertainment on intern wages. It took nearly eight years, five jobs, four states, one pandemic, and enough research to create a freshman-level course on early Soviet history, but at the end, she had a novel.
Wingerter lives in the Denver area with her husband, Justin, and infant daughter, Claire. She covers health for The Denver Post, and has been published in The Oklahoman, The Topeka Capital-Journal, The Muskegon Chronicle, and The (Lancaster) Sunday News. She has been recognized for her journalistic writing, and beat Mitch Albom for top columnist in Michigan in 2012. Despite what the trolls may tell you, this is her first work of fiction.
