The Rest is Silence

FinalistAmazon.ca First Novel AwardJim Connors Dartmouth Book AwardOttawa Book Award"A fascinating and complex plot. . . . Fotheringham holds the tension to the show-stopping end." — Chronicle HeraldIn the backwoods of Nova Scotia, a man has decided to withdraw from the world to simplify his life. He builds a cabin and plants a garden. He befriends the few people he can reach within biking distance — an old man living on the shore and a woman who may be as damaged as he is. In fits and starts, he recounts a story to his new friends, a tale of youthful passions, of idealism and rebellion, of love and of science.There is a reason for the man's self-enforced exile, one that has implications beyond the confines of the forest. As news reports trickle in of a brewing environmental catastrophe on a global scale — a genetically modified strain of plastic-eating bacteria creating chaos as it devours both waste and material vital for day-to-day life — the unsettling nature of his confession becomes clear. The world will never be the same again.Bold in themes, sensual in language, and astonishing in its implications, The Rest is Silence is a stunning achievement. Intimate in setting yet grand in scope, Scott Fotheringham has penned a frighteningly realistic portrait of the consequences we may all yet face for believing we had the right to crack open Pandora's box.