Rebecca Fisseha (Author), Athena Karkanis (Read by)
Daughters of Silence (Audiobook)
Published: October 10, 2023
BTC Audiobooks / Fiction / Novels
Digital Audio: 9781773103525 $35.00 SRP
Strong female voice, a clear-eyed narrator examining self and family.
Ash from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano fills the skies. Flights are grounded throughout Europe. Dessie, a cosmopolitan flight attendant from Canada, finds herself stranded in Addis Ababa — her birth place.
As Dessie reacquaints herself with her grandfather's house, familiar yet strangely alien to her diasporic sensibilities, she pieces together the family secrets: the trauma of dictatorship and civil war, the shame of unwed motherhood, the abuse met with silence that gives shape to the mystery of her mother's life.
Reminiscent of the deeply immersive writing of Taiye Selasi and Arundhati Roy, Rebecca Fisseha's Daughters of Silence is psychologically astute and buoyed both by metaphor and by the vibrant colours of Ethiopia. It's an impressive debut.
Author
Rebecca Fisseha is the author of Daughters of Silence, chosen by CBC Books and 49th Shelf as one of the most anticipated books of fiction of the year and by Quill and Quire as one of the Best Books for 2019. Fisseha's stories, personal essays, and articles explore the unique and universal aspects of the Ethiopian diaspora and have appeared in literary journals and anthologies such as Room Magazine, Joyland, Lithub, Zora, and Addis Ababa Noir. Born in Addis Ababa, Fisseha now lives in Toronto.
Athena Karkanis is well known for roles in TV and film including Manifest, House of Cards, Murdoch Mysteries, and Suits. She is also the narrator of the audiobooks of Sharon Bala’s The Boat People and Kim Echlin’s Speak, Silence.
Reviews
"Fisseha's assured debut straddles two worlds and is vividly, insightfully, embedded in both. She takes on some of the trickiest of family and cultural dilemmas with affection and beady-eyed aplomb." — Aida Edemariam, author of The Wife's Tale
"A story of trauma and reckoning, of flight and return, told honestly, written boldly." — Tessa McWatt, author of Higher Ed
"Fisseha's remarkable debut tells the story of a family fractured by secrets and grief and a young woman's journey to find healing and survival. Dessie is a character I will not forget, and her voice — confident, vulnerable, and sharp — stayed with me. This book will break your heart and then precariously mend it back together." — Ayelet Tsabari, author of The Art of Leaving
"Rebecca Fisseha maps a young woman's journey into adulthood and forgiveness with care, sensitivity, and sly humour." — Djamila Ibrahim, author of Things Are Good Now
"A touching and confident debut ... unforgettable prose ... Fisseha crafts a profound and heartbreaking story of a mother-daughter relationship that is deeply fractured in life but mourned greatly in death" — Herizons