About two years ago, Ashley Audrain kept me awake during a cross-country road trip with her debut novel, “The Push.” That domestic thriller ended up being my favorite read of the entire year, and one I still think about often — especially its eerie and disturbing last scene, which I won’t talk about here because SPOILERS.
This month, Audrain is back with another page-turning suspense novel about parents, children, choices and secrets.
“The Whispers” focuses on four suburban families — but primarily four women — who we meet during a backyard get-together at Whitney Loverly’s home. During the party, Whitney loudly rages against her 10-year-old son, Xavier, not realizing that everyone can hear her through the second-story bedroom window. A few months later, the boy is rushed to the hospital after falling from that same window, and we spend the rest of the novel trying to unravel what happened and why.
The cast includes Whitney’s friend Blair, who gave up her career to care for her only daughter; Rebecca, an emergency-room nurse who is struggling to have children of her own; and Mara, an elderly Portuguese woman who watches the goings-on in her gentrified neighborhood with wise detachment.
Once again, Audrain explores the quiet sacrifices of motherhood and the consequences of our decisions. A quick warning: The novel includes disturbing scenes involving fertility and miscarriage. But once again, I was riveted until the very last scene — the last paragraph, in fact — which had me closing the book, shaking my head and saying, “Oh my gosh, she did it again.”
