Becky Grace
21 Jul 2023
The utterly gripping debut novel from Carole Hailey
A powerful debut novel that explores a complex mother-daughter
relationship. What is it like to be the daughter of a woman who started
a cult that changed the world?
Maidstone LitFest is delighted to add Carole Hailey, exciting new author of The Silence Project, to the festival programme.
Carole Hailey, described as a 'sophisticated and compelling new voice' in fiction, completed the six-month Guardian/University of East Anglia novel writing course taught by Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo. Evaristo imbued Carole with such a love for writing fiction that she abandoned her career in law to undertake an MA in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, followed by a PhD in Creative Writing at Swansea University.
Carole was selected to join the London Library Emerging Writers Programme 2020/2021, joining a group of 40 writers selected from a field of over 800 applicants.
"A ferociously smart page turner, exploring how idealism curdles into fanaticism, silence into violence. Brilliantly original and inventive." Alan Bilton, author of The Known and Unknown Sea
The Silence Project is her first published novel and was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize Peggy Chapman-Andrews First Novel Award 2020 and highly commended by the judges.
Tickets go on sale in August