Reviewed on Richard & Judy's Book Club 2009 on Wednesday 18 March.
A family struggling to cope with the self-imposed silence the eleven year old daughter has been keeping up for the last nine months. This has a fairly gentle pace and perhaps not too much “action” but it explores family relationships and emotions and how people communicate (or don’t). A thoughtful story.
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
| Recommendations: |
Win a Copy of The Sisters of Hope Square by Faith Hogan and a Bucket List Scratch Book
Closing date: 04/07/2026
Eleven-year-old Isabelle hasn’t spoken in nine months, and as December begins the situation is getting desperate. Her mother has stopped work to devote herself full-time to her daughter’s care. Four psychiatrists have already given up on her, and her school, which until now has allowed her to study from home, will not take her back in the New Year. Her parents are frantically trying to understand what has happened to their child so they can help her, but they cannot escape the thought of darker possibilities. What if Isabelle is damaged beyond their reach? Will she never speak again? Is it their fault?
As her parents spiral around Isabelle’s impenetrable silence, she herself emerges, in a fascinating portrait of an exceptional child, as a bright young girl in need of help yet too terrified to ask for it.
By the talented young author of FIREWORKS, this is a novel of spellbinding emotional power about a family in crisis, showing the delicate web of threads that connect a husband and wife, parents and children, and how easily it can tear.
December features in the following genres: Modern and Contemporary Fiction, eBooks of the Month, General Fiction, Fiction, Recommendations
December is available in Paperback
December was written by Elizabeth H Winthrop and published by Hodder & Stoughton General Division
December has 375 pages
