Winner of the Australian Indie Book Award for Debut Fiction • Winner of the MUD Literary Prize • Shortlisted for the BookPeople Adult Fiction Book of the Year • Shortlisted for the Literary Fiction Book of the Year and The Matt Richell Award for New Writers ABIA Awards • Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist
‘Tracey Lien’s first novel is a deeply moving tale of rage, regret and resilience . . . A brilliant debut’ The Times
‘An unforgettable debut, utterly compelling from start to finish. Original. Heartbreaking. Gripping' Liane Moriarty
‘A gripping and unflinching narrative that is as heart-wrenching as it is unputdownable’ Karin Slaughter
* * *
They claim they saw nothing. She knows they’re lying
‘Just let him go.’
Those are words Ky Tran will forever regret. The words she spoke when her parents called to ask if they should let her younger brother Denny out to celebrate his high school graduation with friends. That night, Denny – optimistic, guileless Denny – is brutally murdered inside a busy restaurant in the Sydney suburb of Cabramatta, a refugee enclave facing violent crime, and an indifferent police force.
Returning home for the funeral, Ky learns that the police are stumped by her brother’s case. Even though several people were present at Denny’s murder, each bystander claims to have seen nothing, and they are all staying silent.
Determined to uncover the truth, Ky tracks down and questions the witnesses herself. But what she learns goes beyond what happened that fateful night. The silence has always been there, threaded through the generations, and Ky begins to expose the complex traumas weighing on those present the night Denny died. As she peels back the layers of the place that shaped her, she must confront more than the reasons her brother is dead. And once those truths have finally been spoken, how can any of them move on?
*
‘A shocking, deeply moving and truly special debut … A richly crafted mystery, a story that is both impossible to put down and impossible to forget’
Chris Whitaker, We Begin at the End
‘Poignant and impeccable storytelling’ Oprah Daily
