Talking in Whispers

A political thriller for Young Adults set in Chile during the seizure of power by the military. First issued in the UK by Gollancz UK in 1983, the book has been published in America, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Spain and Sweden. It has been a GCSE English text in many schools and was winner of the Other Award, Highly Commended in the Carnegie Awards and winner of the Buxtehuder Bulle Prize for teen fiction.

Talking in Whispers is a story about how young people struggle to survive in a country under martial law. Andres, son of an arrested folk singer and Isa and Beto, twins, running their travelling puppet theatre, grow tired of talking in whispers.

‘Hard to put down…it is frightening, exciting, gritty and grim.’ The Guardian.

‘Anyone who reads this book will be a different person when he comes to the end…superb.’ Books for Your Children.

‘Taut and chilling prose and characters as utterly convincing as they are sympathetic.’ British Book News.