The Silent Patient Alex Michaelides

THE SILENT PATIENT BY ALEX MICHAELIDES

PAPERBACK PUBLISHED BY ORION BOOKS

I bought my own book from The Works 3 for £5

Alicia Berenson lived a seemingly perfect life until one day six years ago.

When she shot her husband in the head five times.

Since then she hasn’t spoken a single word.

It’s time to find out why.

PART OF THE PROLOGUE

Alicia Berenson’s Diary

14th July

I don’t know why I’m writing this.

That’s not true. Maybe I do know, and just don’t want to admit it to myself.

I don’t even know what to call it this thing I’m writing. It feels a little pretentious to call it a diary. It’s not like I have anything to say. Anne Frank kept a diary, or Samuel Pepys not someone like me. Calling it a journal sounds to academic, somehow. As if I should write in it every day, and I don’t want to if it becomes a chore, I’ll never keep it up.

Maybe I’ll call it nothing. An unnamed something that I occasionally write in. I like that better. Once you name something, it stops you seeing all of it, or why it matters. You focus on the word which is the tiniest part, really, the tip of an iceberg. I’ve never been that comfortable with words I always think in pictures, express myself with images so I’d never have started writing this, if it weren’t for Gabriel.

I’ve been feeling depressed lately about a few things. I thought I was doing a good job of hiding it, but he noticed of course he did, he notices everything.

ABOUT AUTHOR ALEX MICHAELIDES

Alex Michaelides was born and raised in Cyprus. He has an M.A. in English literature from Trinity College, Cambridge University, and an M.A. in screenwriting from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. The Silent Patient was his first novel and was the biggest-selling debut in the world in 2019. It spent more than a year on the New York Times bestseller list and sold in a record-breaking forty-nine countries. Alex lives in London.