Silent Hearts

By Gwen Florio

Book Overview

"A rich, haunting, immersive story of cultures at the crossroads--deeply moving. A heart-smashingly good read, the kind of novel you'll want to share with your book club." --Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Love and Other Consolation Prizes and Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

"Highly recommended, especially for fans of Khaled Hosseini." --Library Journal, starred review

For fans of A Thousand Splendid Suns comes a stirring novel set in Afghanistan​ about two women--an American aid worker and her local interpreter--who form an unexpected friendship despite their utterly different life experiences and the ever-increasing violence that surrounds them in Kabul. ​

In 2001, Kabul is suddenly a place of possibility as people fling off years of repressive Taliban rule. This hopeful chaos brings together American aid worker Liv Stoellner and Farida Basra, an educated Pakistani woman still adjusting to her arranged marriage to Gul, the son of an Afghan strongman whose family spent years of exile in Pakistan before returning to Kabul.

Both Liv and her husband take positions at an NGO that helps Afghan women recover from the Taliban years. They see the move as a reboot--Martin for his moribund academic career, Liv for their marriage. But for Farida and Gul, the move to Kabul is fraught, severing all ties with Farida's family and her former world, and forcing Gul to confront a chapter in his life he'd desperately tried to erase.

The two women, brought together by Farida's work as an interpreter, form a nascent friendship based on their growing mutual love for Afghanistan, though Liv remains unaware that Farida is reporting information about the Americans' activities to Gul's family, who have ties to the black market.

As the bond between Farida and Liv deepens, war-scarred Kabul acts in different ways upon them, as well as their husbands. Silent Hearts is an absorbing, complex portrayal of two very different but equally resilient women caught in the conflict of a war that will test them in ways they never imagined.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1501181920
• ISBN13: 9781501181924
• Release Date: July 2018
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Awesome book. Must read.

This book was a great departure from Gwen Florio Lola Wicks series. Well written. I started the book and literally could not put down until finished. The ending was totally unexpected. Well written. Twists and turns that were surprising. The Lola Wicks series are very well written also. This book, though. One of the few books that I am keeping in my electric library. I have not found a book that I can say this about for years. A must read.