The Quiet and the Loud

George’s life is loud. On the water, though, with everything hushed above and below, she is steady, silent.

Then her estranged dad says he needs to talk, and George’s past begins to wake up, looping around her ankles, trying to drag her under. But there’s no time to sink. George’s best friend, Tess, is about to become, officially, a teen mum, her friend Laz is in despair about the climate crisis, her gramps would literally misplace his teeth if not for her, and her moms fill the house with fuss and chatter.

Before long, heat and smoke join the noise as dis­tant wildfires begin to burn. George tries to stay steady. When her father tells her his news and the painful memo­ries roar back to life, George turns to Calliope, the girl who has just cartwheeled into her world and shot it through with colours. And it’s here George would stay - quiet and safe - if she could.

But then Tess has her baby, and the earth burns hotter, and the past just will not stay put. A novel about the contours of friendship, family, forgiveness, trauma, and love, and about our hopeless, hopeful world, Helena Fox’s gorgeous follow-up to How It Feels to Float explores the stories we suppress and the stories we speak - and the healing that comes when we voice the things we’ve kept quiet for so long.