The Silence and the Rage
From “a novelist at the height of his powers,” a dramatic and jubilant dive into France in the “glorious years” of the 1950s, through the lens of one ambitious, troubled, and utterly compelling family (La Croix).

It is 1952 and the grown children of Louis Pelletier, a prominent businessman with a dark past, have settled in Paris. Jean, the menacing eldest brother, is trapped in a stifling marriage, his days lightened only by his love for his three-year-old daughter. Meanwhile, the bloody consequences of his violent impulses threaten to catch up to him at last.

François, an up-and-coming reporter, is caught up in a turbulent love affair with an intriguing woman who isn't quite the person she pretends to be. And Hélène, their younger sister, strives to make her own way as a journalist as she fights to expose a vast industrial scandal. But as a woman in a man's world, Hélène's devotion to her career comes at a life-threatening cost.

Dark and compelling, witty and vivid, and filled with surprising reversals and cliffhangers, The Silence and the Rage is the story of one remarkable family against the backdrop of France during one of its most thrilling and volatile periods.
1146607422
The Silence and the Rage
From “a novelist at the height of his powers,” a dramatic and jubilant dive into France in the “glorious years” of the 1950s, through the lens of one ambitious, troubled, and utterly compelling family (La Croix).

It is 1952 and the grown children of Louis Pelletier, a prominent businessman with a dark past, have settled in Paris. Jean, the menacing eldest brother, is trapped in a stifling marriage, his days lightened only by his love for his three-year-old daughter. Meanwhile, the bloody consequences of his violent impulses threaten to catch up to him at last.

François, an up-and-coming reporter, is caught up in a turbulent love affair with an intriguing woman who isn't quite the person she pretends to be. And Hélène, their younger sister, strives to make her own way as a journalist as she fights to expose a vast industrial scandal. But as a woman in a man's world, Hélène's devotion to her career comes at a life-threatening cost.

Dark and compelling, witty and vivid, and filled with surprising reversals and cliffhangers, The Silence and the Rage is the story of one remarkable family against the backdrop of France during one of its most thrilling and volatile periods.
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The Silence and the Rage

The Silence and the Rage

by Pierre Lemaitre

Narrated by Philip Bird

Unabridged — 17 hours, 18 minutes

The Silence and the Rage

The Silence and the Rage

by Pierre Lemaitre

Narrated by Philip Bird

Unabridged — 17 hours, 18 minutes

Audiobook (Digital)

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Overview

From “a novelist at the height of his powers,” a dramatic and jubilant dive into France in the “glorious years” of the 1950s, through the lens of one ambitious, troubled, and utterly compelling family (La Croix).

It is 1952 and the grown children of Louis Pelletier, a prominent businessman with a dark past, have settled in Paris. Jean, the menacing eldest brother, is trapped in a stifling marriage, his days lightened only by his love for his three-year-old daughter. Meanwhile, the bloody consequences of his violent impulses threaten to catch up to him at last.

François, an up-and-coming reporter, is caught up in a turbulent love affair with an intriguing woman who isn't quite the person she pretends to be. And Hélène, their younger sister, strives to make her own way as a journalist as she fights to expose a vast industrial scandal. But as a woman in a man's world, Hélène's devotion to her career comes at a life-threatening cost.

Dark and compelling, witty and vivid, and filled with surprising reversals and cliffhangers, The Silence and the Rage is the story of one remarkable family against the backdrop of France during one of its most thrilling and volatile periods.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

A social novel that tells the story of the transformation of the old France and magnifies what we love about Lemaitre: his storytelling eloquence, his language, his ironic dialogue, and the humanity of his characters.”—Le Parisien

“Lemaitre continues his thrilling saga of France in the twentieth century…With the virtuosity of a magician, he brings to life the hatreds, fears, and desires of the era.”—Le Nouvel Observateur

“A fraught but dynamic family, grown children struggling for emancipation, fragile traditions about to be shaken up…The tone is lively, often funny. The chapters are pacy…Lemaitre’s fans will recognize here his obsessions: the body, desire, a damaged childhood, legitimacy, and revenge.”—Le Monde des Livres

“Great art…Lemaitre’s books combine narrative efficiency with the pleasures of embracing history through its blind spots.”—Le Figaro

“Lemaitre takes us into the upheavals of an era, particularly when women begin to move from silence to anger…A devastating seduction.”—Le Point

“Terrific…The Pelletier family is a web of contradictions rich in narrative possibilities.”—Le Soir

Kirkus Reviews

2025-05-03
Three French siblings are keeping busy in the early 1950s: Journalism, entrepreneurship, murder…

This novel by Prix Goncourt winner Lemaitre is the second in a planned Glorious Years tetralogy (followingThe Wide World, 2023), starring the Pelletier clan, which in 1952 is highly ambitious and thick with secrets. François, a rising editor at a Paris newspaper, is struggling in his relationship with Nine, a deaf alcoholic kleptomaniac who’s gone missing, while shepherding a blockbuster series on French women’s poor hygiene. His sister, Hélène, is a journalist covering the opening of a dam in the countryside that will flood a provincial town while seeking an illegal abortion. Their brother, Jean, is about to open a second megastore but has to deal with employee protests and a vicious harridan wife, while hoping the papers don’t discover his sideline as a serial killer. Too much? Absurdly so? Mais oui! Which is unfortunate, because there are glimmers here of deep research and emotional sensitivity. Hélène’s plot in particular deals not just with the torments that come with displacing a whole community, but also the country’s draconian anti-abortion laws, which push her to an unlicensed treatment that goes badly. But Lemaitre is so determined to deliver a brash, symphonic novel that his story clangs and strains credulity. Jean’s wife, Geneviève, is cartoonishly evil, blithely cuckolding her husband and glorying in her in-laws’ shortcomings. And a needless subplot features the siblings’ parents sponsoring a mediocre boxer in Beirut who surprisingly fails upward. Lemaitre might intend to reveal the dark side of France’s charming postwar reputation, or perhaps he means to critique the cruelty and violence families bring on each other, knowingly or not. But this manic, pulpy novel makes it hard to trust any serious intention.

A clumsy family saga whose would-be provocations are more comic than harrowing.

Product Details

BN ID: 2940193684510
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Publication date: 07/08/2025
Edition description: Unabridged
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