A book that took the world by storm. Carole, the author, is sitting down to discuss ‘The Silence Project’ and how it came about…
There’s a saying in Lithuania: ”A word is not a sparrow – once it flies away, it can’t be caught.”
We live in a world where one wrong word could trigger millions. Where people get offended so easily, it’s almost as if the notion of what it means to have an opinion is utterly and completely forgotten. A world, where people debate issues that have nothing to do with who they are, or where they come from. Where those, who are familiar to everyone, get cancelled for something they’ve said decades ago.
It’s as if today’s world requires us to tip toe around it, carefully selecting what we say, and who we say it to. Now, more than ever, the power of words is evident.
Maybe this is exactly the reason The Silence Project by Carole Hailey spoke to me. The idea of a community, where people promote silence, and encourage listening, seemed intriguing.
I know myself better than anyone, sometimes way too forward, I wish that biting my tongue in certain situations would come naturally to me. I wish I was better at active listening, and I wish I could think about the power of words, before letting them fly away, with no chance of being caught.
Introducing the author of The Silence Project – Carole
”On Emilia Morris’s thirteenth birthday, her mother Rachel starts living in a tent in their garden, choosing not to speak anymore. This inspires other women to join her, forming the Community. Eight years later, Rachel and her followers worldwide die by self-immolation, an event referred to as the Event. The Community gains global influence afterward, with varied opinions on Rachel – seen as either heartless or heroic. Emilia, Rachel’s daughter, shares her perspective for the first time through her memoir ‘The Silence Project.’ She exposes the dark evolution of the Community, stepping out of her mother’s shadow to find her own voice.”
The Silence Project by Carole Hailey is one of the greatest books I’ve ever read. I’m not a fan of love stories and cliché romance reads. Give me a book about cults, surving in them, substance abuse, addiction, moral dilemmas, and psychologically challenging situations and I’ll devour it in no time. If you’re anything like me, The Silence Project should be on your must-read list, and not just because it’s about a cult-like community, but also because it might teach you a thing or two about the power of silence.
Q: At what point in your life did you discover your passion for writing?
C: Pretty much as soon as I learned to write. When I was 10 years old, I wrote a school Christmas play which revolved around a race to see who would replace Father Christmas because he was ill! I wish I still had the script – but as far as I can remember Worzel Gummidge won.
When I wasn’t reading, I was writing, but then, as I got older, I stopped writing fiction because of school and then university. Before I became a writer, I was a lawyer, and I just didn’t have the time or the headspace to write and for nearly twenty years I didn’t write at all, but I never stopped wanting to be a writer.
Q: How did you make such a drastic switch from being a lawyer to being a writer?
C: By the time I was in my 30s I was running my own law firm and employing lots of people and I just couldn’t see how I could ever find a way to get from where I was to where I wanted to be. I must have talked about it a lot and been very annoying, because one day my husband showed me an advert in The Guardian for a six-month ‘How To Write A Novel’ course. It was for three hours every Monday, at the Guardian’s offices at Kings Cross in London. My husband gave me an ultimatum: he said he would pay for me to do the course as a 40th birthday present and I either did the course or never again say I wanted to be a writer!
I did the course. It was the best birthday present I’ve ever had! What made it even more fantastic though was the entire course was taught by Bernardine Evaristo – author of Girl, Woman, Other and future Booker Prize Winner. She was the most inspirational teacher and between the two of them – Bernardine and my husband – they changed my life because two years after finishing the course, I left the law and went to do an MA in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths.
Q: You wrote such a fascinating book, one that I simply could not put down. In the world full of books that are mostly about love, this was such a refreshing read. What was your inspiration for it?
C: Thank you so much.
The original idea for it came during the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote in the UK and Trump becoming president in the US. I know I wasn’t alone in thinking that everyone seemed to be shouting and no-one was listening. So many people, but particularly those in power, appeared to have completely lost the art of having a civilised debate, listening to views other than their own and trying to find a middle ground. Sadly, nothing seems to have changed!
I had the idea of writing about a woman who is so fed up with all the shouting that she decides to do the complete opposite and stop speaking. When I began writing The Silence Project, it very quickly it became apparent that if Rachel and her silence didn’t ever leave the bottom of the garden, it would be a very boring novel! That’s how the idea of the Community began
I also decided very early on that Rachel would end up making what she sees as the ultimate sacrifice to get her message across, which meant she couldn’t be the narrator (because she would be dead!) and so I decided to write it from the point of view of her grown-up daughter Emilia writing the story of her mother’s life and the effect that her mother’s actions had on her. At that point, I knew (very broadly) what the story was about and who was telling it – I just had to write the novel!
Q: What was the creative process like when you were writing The Silence Project?
C: I usually write every day and although I do have a general idea of where the story is going, the detail of the plot often changes in response to whatever I’ve written. I also do a lot of revision and editing as I go.
There was a lot of research behind The Silence Project. I began it immediately after finishing a PhD in Creative Writing at Swansea University, during which I’d spent three years researching religious cults (for a previous, unpublished, novel!). Although Rachel is an atheist, much of the cult research found its way into the The Silence Project. While I was writing it, I was really lucky to have been chosen as a London Library Emerging Writer which meant I had access to the most incredible resources, which is where I did all of my research into the Democratic Republic of the Congo and contraceptive use. Google was also my friend, of course!
Often the research would spark ideas for the plot, which was incredibly helpful and now I can’t imagine writing a novel without immersing myself in background reading and research.
Q: Rachel is such a complicated character. As I was reading the book, I had conflicting feelings about her – it seems the message behind her silence was coming from a real place, on the other hand – she was the starting point of what became a toxic cult. In your eyes, is Rachel a protagonist or an antagonist?
C: I love this question! I was very conflicted about Rachel too, for precisely the reasons you’ve identified. I don’t believe when Rachel decided to give up speaking that she intended the Community to become the malevolent movement that it has by the end of the novel. And, of course, that’s partly what I wanted to write about – how even movements started with the best of intentions (in this case, a benign message about speaking less and listening more) can become shadowy, sinister cults.
However, Rachel doesn’t behave well towards her daughter and at times Emilia articulates how her mother wants to listen to everyone except her. I also wanted to explore whether neglecting a child could ever be justified by working towards making the world a better place.
I see Rachel as both a protagonist and an antagonist: I had sympathy for her as I was writing her but she was deeply flawed so, hopefully, I made her as complicated and multi-dimensional as we all are!
Q: Who are some of your favourite authors?
C: There are so many! But some of my ‘automatic buys’ are Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Kate Atkinson, Kate Mosse, Margaret Atwood, Naomi Alderman, Taylor Jenkins Reid and Barbara Kingsolver.
I also want to mention Ian Banks. I read everything he wrote, including all of his science fiction books, published under the name Ian M. Banks. He was an absolutely legend.
One final mention. I’m slowly working my way through Emile Zola’s entire Les Rougon-Macquart series (all twenty of them) recently published in new translations by Oxford Press. Zola was a titan of nineteenth century literature and I love his books.
Q: What is one book everyone should read?
C: This is such a difficult question. My answer yesterday might be different from my answer tomorrow, however for today I am going to say Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Her writing is effortlessly brilliant and she manages to write about the most fundamental subject – what it is to be human – in a way that is as readable and page-turner-y as a thriller.
Q: Are you working on anything exciting at the moment?
C: I’ve just finished a draft of another novel. It’s about the devastating consequences of a toxic relationship between a man, his wife and his sister. I was really curious about exploring a claustrophobic sibling relationship and the jealousies that might arise when one of the siblings falls in love.
Q: What advice would you give to young writers hoping to be published?
C: Write what you want to know. Often aspiring writers are told to ‘write what you know’, but I think it’s much more interesting to write what you want to know. Use your writing to answer your own questions about people, relationships, or situations. If you find your own writing engaging and exciting then so will other people.
Be curious. It’s really useful as a writer to know a little about a lot of things. Not only might it spark ideas for writing, but also it really helps to flesh out your characters if you’ve got a whole resource of trivia to call on for their conversations, interests and actions.
Be bold. The world of fiction is a crowded market but there will always be room for more books (thankfully!). But if you’re bold with your writing, if you let your stories travel in directions that are challenging to you as a writer, then you’re more likely to write something that really stands out from the crowd.
Purchase The Silence Project here, and follow Carole on social media:
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