A History of Silence

'Jones is a daring writer who can be relied on to ignore expectation, and is becoming one of the most interesting, honest and thought-provoking novelists working today.' Guardian 'It would be difficult to think of another novelist as original or fearless as...Lloyd Jones.' Monthly 'Poetically observed detail and an affecting evocation of the past will reward readers interested in the way our history (even, or especially, that which we don't know about) can shape us.' Bookseller and Publisher 'A History of Silence quickly establishes itself as a captivating memoir...Jones has written a brave and remarkable tribute to his forbears.' Readings Monthly 'Memoir shrinks themes and holds them close to the bone. It brings out the poet in Jones as he scours family letters and bureaucratic records in New Zealand and Wales for clues. It's a meandering investigation...but with Jones the meandering is a pleasurable experience, gently paced and studded with lovely phrasing.' Weekend Australian 'The stories Jones uncovers speak of loss, displacement, unbearable sadness, but also courage.' Canberra Times 'Jones skilfully gives the reader the point of view of the growing child making the best of things in a charmless Wellington suburb, but as the child becomes the man...the book gathers an urgency and poignancy that at times becomes as painful as pulling flesh across barbed wire, and we become aware the lineaments of grand tragedy can be found in the back streets of Lower Hutt.' Otago Daily Times 'A History of Silence is as strange, wilful and compelling as his fiction.' Saturday Age/Sydney Morning Herald/Canberra Times 'Throughout this brilliant memoir the ultimate impact of the book lies with how openly and humanely Jones responds, as an author and a son, to a truer picture of his family. In this, it does what I suspect we'd like all family memoirs to do. Before filling the silence, it listens for what might lie behind it.' Australian Book Review