Carole Hailey’s novel, The Silence Project, was published by Corvus on 9 February 2023.

Carole kindly answered a few of my questions.  

1. Tell us a little about The Silence Project.  

The Silence Project is a fictional memoir written by the daughter of a women who is believed to be the saviour of humanity by many people and a mass murderer by everyone else.

On Emilia Morris’s thirteenth birthday, her mother Rachel moves into a tent at the bottom of their garden. From that day on, Rachel never says another word. Inspired by her vow of silence, other women join her and together they build the Community. Eight years later, Rachel and thousands of her followers around the world burn themselves to death. 
 
In the aftermath of what comes to be known as the Event, the Community’s global influence quickly grows. As a result, the whole world has an opinion about Rachel, whether they see her as a callous monster or a heroic martyr. 
 
When she publishes her own account of her mother’s life in a memoir called The Silence Project, Emilia also decides to reveal just how sinister the Community has become. In the process, she steps out of Rachel’s shadow once and for all, so that her own voice may finally be heard. 

The Silence Project is a book about mothers and daughters, about how benign movements become malign cults, about unforeseen consequences and about how, in trying to heal the problems of the world, we might just create something even worse.

2. What inspired the book?

The Silence Project was born out of the toxic Brexit campaign and Trump’s ability to ignore any view that didn’t match his own. I know I wasn’t alone in feeling that everyone everywhere was shouting and absolutely no-one was listening.

Somewhere among my obsessive scrolling of news sites and twitter feeds, I had the idea of writing about a woman who is so distressed by all the shouting that she is prepared to do whatever it takes to try and persuade people to listen to each other again. Out of this my character Rachel was born – someone who chooses to be silent in order to truly hear what others are saying. It’s an intoxicating idea when conversations today can feel overwhelmingly shouty and polarised and I felt sure others would join her silent protest. But, of course, even with the best intentions, it’s never that straightforward.  

In exploring the idea of a community led by Rachel, I wondered if her ideology would make her as fanatical as the people she’s protesting about? And if so, what would she be prepared to do to get her point across? Who would she be happy to hurt? 

Although I finished writing The Silence Project in 2021 and Brexit has ‘been done’ and Trump is no longer president, the shouting hasn’t stopped. Nobody in power seemsprepared to listento any opinion other than their own which – sadly for society, but happily for me – means that the inspiration behind my book remains as relevant as when I first started to write it.

3. Do you plan before you start writing or do you sit down and see where the words take you?

Before I start writing, I only have the most high-level idea of what I’d like to write about. I start with a situation, put my characters into the situation and see how they react. Often the situation is not the beginning of the story so I have to work out the backstory as well as what happens as a result. With The Silence Project I was very clear that I wanted to write about someone who was so sick and tired of all the shouting in the world that they decided to stop talking. 

I knew I wanted my protagonist to be a woman, but who she actually was and how her actions affected those around her only became clear when I sat in front of my laptop, bashing out the words. Also, part way through, the location of the story jumps to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which certainly wasn’t in my mind when I first started writing. 

4. Is there anything about the process of publishing a book that surprised you?

The length of time it takes! I signed with my agent in January 2021, Atlantic bought the book in June that year and it is being published in February 2023. There were months and months where I couldn’t really tell anyone except close friends and family that I was (finally!) going to be published. It’s not that I minded, particularly, just that I hadn’t expected so much silence 🙂

Once the announcement was made, I was surprised all over again by just how much effort the fabulous team at my publisher have put into every part of the run up to publication. I’m sure it’s not everyone’s experience and I have been exceptionally lucky with everyone at Atlantic who is involved in publishing The Silence Project because it feels like they have all put in at least as much hard work and creativity as I did in writing the novel. 

5. What do you do when you aren’t writing? What do you do to relax and get away from it all?

I am really fortunate to live in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park in west Wales. We have two dogs and when I’m not writing I spend a lot of my time walking the dogs. They both hate rain though and so I spend far too much of my day just trying to coax them out of the front door. When I’m not doing that, I’m reading. Reading was my first love and has been my constant companion since I was five years old. 

6. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life which book would it be?

This is such an unfair question! I’m going to choose Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. She is, of course, a fabulous writer and I love books which highlight what we all have in common whilst also celebrating how we’re all different and in Americanah there is so much to think about and enjoy and learn from that I’d hope it would be a very long time before I got bored of it.

7. I like to end my Q&As with the same question so here we go. During all the Q&As and interviews you’ve done what question have you not been asked that you wish had been asked – and what’s the answer?

I love this question! The Silence Project was the third novel that I’ve written, I had a different agent for my first novel which couldn’t find a publisher, I self-published the second, and the question I have asked myself but which no-one has asked me is whether I wish that it hadn’t taken until the third novel to have a traditionally published debut novel. 

The honest answer is no, although it didn’t always feel this way, I don’t wish it had happened sooner. My agent – Marina de Pass at The Soho Agency – is an amazing advocate for both me and my writing and had the first novel sold, I wouldn’t be with her. Also, if I hadn’t written the first two novels, I don’t believe I would have had the confidence to tackle the subjects that The Silence Project deals with. Of course there is no guarantee that it will sell well – I know that only celebrities and best-selling authors can be guaranteed sales – but I do think that with this novel, I’ve given myself the best chance, and I honestly think that that’s as a result of the experiences, and failures, of writing the two previous novels.   

About the Book

Monster. Martyr. Mother.

On Emilia Morris’s thirteenth birthday, her mother Rachel moves into a tent at the bottom of their garden. From that day on, she never says another word. Inspired by her vow of silence, other women join her and together they build the Community. Eight years later, Rachel and thousands of her followers around the world burn themselves to death.

In the aftermath of what comes to be known as the Event, the Community’s global influence quickly grows. As a result, the whole world has an opinion about Rachel – whether they see her as a callous monster or a heroic martyr – but Emilia has never voiced hers publicly. Until now.

When she publishes her own account of her mother’s life in a memoir called The Silence Project, Emilia also decides to reveal just how sinister the Community has become. In the process, she steps out of Rachel’s shadow once and for all, so that her own voice may finally be heard.

You can buy a copy of the book here.

(This is an affiliate link so I may earn a small amount if you purchase through it. You can also buy The Silence Project from your local independent bookshop.)