Silence: A Novel

"I am no witch, nor adulteress, thief, nor murderer. They say I have lost my reason, but I know only that my heart is shattered, and in crying it aloud, now I must pay the cost...."

After three grievous losses, Puritan woman Silence Marsh dares to question God aloud in the church, and that blasphemy lands her in trouble-she is silenced for a year by the powers that be. Broken in heart and spirit, Silence learns to mime and sign, but it isn't until a new Boston doctor, the dashing Daniel Greenleaf, comes to her backward Cape Cod village that she begins to hope again. Rather than treating Silence with bleeding or leeches, Dr. Greenleaf prescribes fresh air, St. John's Wort, long walks-and reading.

Silence has half a hope of getting through her year of punishment when the cry of witchcraft poisons the village. Colonial Massachusetts is still reeling from the Salem Witch Trials just 20 years before. Now, after demanding her silence, she is called to witness at a witchcraft trial-or be accused herself.

A whiff of sulfur and witchcraft shadows this literary Puritan tale of loss and redemption, based on the author's own ancestor, her seventh great-grandmother.

“Park Tracey, the author of The Bereaved (2023), is a remarkable writer, and this book is another triumph. The character of Silence is a wonderful creation who endures a life suffering, doubt, and blazing anger, and readers will be invested in her fate. The archaic language and fine detail relate what it was like to live in a typical household of the time, all the household practices of everyday life, and how, for example, to prepare for long winters: Withal, the apples have been cut and dried, the apple-butter crocked, the cider pressed. Crane-berries and wild grape are gathered and dried.  A historically astute and compelling must read.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Julia Park Tracey's Silence is a powerful, lyrical marvel of a novel. The challenges that Silence March faces and the questions that she struggles with after she has been sentenced to a year of silence by her Separatist community not only create a vivid and authentic picture of Puritan New England, but also resonate in meaningful ways with our own times. Silence's story is both haunting and inspiring, and I am grateful to Julia Park Tracey for having given her such a captivating voice.” —Jean Hegland, author of Into the Forest

“I’m a huge fan of Julia Park Tracey. Her new novel Silence is a moving, transcendent novel in the vein of Groff’s Matrix and Toews’s Women Talking. Historical fiction, yes, but more importantly an inquiry into female agency and power in a world that takes the breaking of the spirit as its right. Beautiful.” —Christian Kiefer, author of The Heart Of It All

“Silence reads as if the author lived through the events that take place in the early days of the American Colonies, rather than so brilliantly imagining them. In fact, we do live through them, in the guise of Julia Park Tracey’s bewitching, wise, and delightful narrator, who must navigate a narrow, superstitious world, and who in the process learns that being punished by temporal silence can unexpectedly open a wide and loving universe.” —Sands Hall, Co-Director, Memoir & Nonfiction Program, Community of Writers, author of Reclaiming My Decade Lost in Scientology

“Julia Park Tracey is a master of historical detail. Her deft eye brings alive the story of Silence Marsh, a woman whose unintentional acts bring persecution for the sin of female weakness so intense, it seems unbelievable yet true to the religious practices of early 18th-century America. The loss of her mother, husband, and child, her precipitous fall and subsequent rise with a man from the Age of Reason, cleaved me to her story and ultimately brought me to tears. I didn't want Silence to end!” —Julia Chibbaro, author of Redemption

“With a disarmingly restrained yet empathic prose, Julia Park Tracey introduces us to Silence Marsh as she wades through immeasurable loss and grief in pre-Revolutionary Massachusetts. However, it is her journey towards redemption that makes Silence a timeless heroine in the wake of the Puritanical strictures of Hingham village. What an achievement. I love this character and I love this book.” —Miah Jeffra, author of American Gospel

“Tracey’s writing is sumptuous and absorbing, transporting the reader to a provincial, eighteenth-century Puritan village while weaving together a deeply felt story that packs a considerable punch.” —Greg Houle, author of The Putnams of Salem: A Novel of Power and Betrayal During the Salem Witch Trials

“To grieve is a crime in Julia Park Tracey's lyrical novel Silence, unflinching in its depiction of the tyranny of religion and patriarchy and yet strikingly tender. Tracey deftly explores how one woman's unfair punishment of silence soon becomes her power. In a world that silences women all too often, Tracey has given lush voice to a story that is historical and yet timeless.” —Jordan Rosenfeld, author of Fallout and Forged in Grace

“In Silence, Julia Park Tracey shows how a woman who has lost everything, including her voice, finds her way out of grief by leaning into the silence of the world around her. Meticulously researched and beautifully written, Tracey contrasts the harshness of Separatist life in the colonies against the budding industrial port of Boston Harbor. Despite being saddled with the draconian punishment of complete silence—a punishment upheld even by her own family—Silence finds there are those both inside and outside of her community that reach out to her simply because they need her quiet company, resilience, and acceptance.” —Holly Day, author/poet, A Perfect Day for Semaphore

“The author brings the reader into the tale in a measured way in this convincing and compulsively readable book. The engaging characters unspool the story so that it slowly settles into the reader's heart and mind, building in power and tension until barreling forward like a locomotive, rushing to the powerful climax and satisfying ending. A stealthy, stunning gem of a book.” —Suzanne Parry, author of Lost Souls of Leningrad

Praise for The Bereaved

Named Top 100 Indie Books of 2023 by Kirkus Reviews

“...Tracey does a masterful job in this novel, developing Martha as a relatable narrator; readers will find that their spirits rise and fall with hers. For the most part, her life in the city is almost too wrenching to witness. The most painful aspect of the story, wonderfully handled by Tracey, is its depiction of the casual cruelty of the righteous folk who think they should be thanked as they break families apart. This novel is based on members of the author’s own family; baby Homer became William Lozier Gaston, who’s Tracey’s great-great grandfather.

An often painful but uplifting novel by a writer at the top of her game.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“In The Bereaved, Julia Park Tracey reopens America’s wounds in prose that is propulsive and resonant. Martha’s struggles are the stuff of classic literature. Theodore Dreiser comes to mind, but so, too, the fine contemporary novels of Jo Baker and Maggie O’Farrell.” —Christian Kiefer, author of Phantoms

“Julia Park Tracey’s The Bereaved is a novel that weaves its intimately detailed characters into your soul. At once, heartbreaking, heartwarming, and absolutely beautiful, this is a story that captures the devastation of loss and the power of enduring hope.” —Lauren Hough, author of Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing

“What happens when a mother is left with no choices? In The Bereaved, Julia Park Tracey casts a stark light on an era in which hard work and devotion simply aren’t enough for women trapped in poverty. Vivid, haunting, authentic, and utterly gripping, it’s a beautifully written story that will stay with you long after you turn the last page.” —Ellen Meister, author of Farewell, Dorothy Parker and Dorothy Parker Drank Here