Winner of the Australian Indie Book Award for Debut Fiction • Winner of the MUD Literary Prize • Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist

‘Written with a raw, aching tone, it grabs you and spits you out – wiser and sadder, yet cautiously optimistic’ Reader review, ★★★★★

‘Tragic, beautifully written, a mystery inside a family saga’ Reader review, ★★★★★

‘A stunner of a novel … powerful’ Reader review, ★★★★★

* * *

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, naive Denny – is brutally murdered inside a busy restaurant.

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 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 as Ky 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?

* * *

Praise for Tracey Lien:

‘Tracey Lien’s first novel is a deeply moving tale of rage, regret and resilience … A brilliant debut’ The Times

‘A compelling and heartrending portrait of grief, the burden of loss, and hope through one woman’s search for the truth’ Daily Mail

‘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

‘Savage and heart-breaking … a story that is both impossible to put down and impossible to forget’ Chris Whitaker, We Begin at the End

‘A complex, harrowing look into the impacts on trauma on a community, written with the urgent pace of a thriller and peppered with moments of levity’ Vogue Australia