In her debut novel, Abbie Greaves zeroes in on the marriage of Frank and Maggie, and the ways in which it has grown, transformed and turned in on itself over 40 years. Writing with the emotional resonance of a lifelong storyteller and the compassionate heart of a dear friend, Greaves reminds us that relationships take work, we are always growing, and with the right person, none of that will matter.

THE SILENT TREATMENT kicks off rather traumatically with Maggie preparing to die by suicide. She has written her husband a note, cooked dinner and swallowed a handful of pills. Though Frank is just down the hall playing chess on his computer, it is not until the smoke detector goes off that he realizes something is wrong. As he waves smoke out of the room, he finally spots Maggie’s body.

At the hospital, Frank learns that while Maggie is still alive, the next few days will be the real test: she will be hooked up to machines and left in a medically induced coma until the doctors determine if there is any part of her that will survive. Terrified and hopelessly lonely, Frank takes to her bedside with the devotion of a parent, marveling at how thin and depleted she has become. Though the nurse encourages Frank to talk to Maggie, assuring him that she will hear him, he finds himself at a loss for words. And then he admits the unthinkable: he has not spoken to his wife in six months.

"...a jarring, moving exploration of a marriage and the work it takes to maintain one....  Painfully moving and surprisingly uplifting, THE SILENT TREATMENT is a careful study of love, identity and compassion."

In stops and starts, Frank begins to tell Maggie their love story, starting from the very first moment he laid eyes on her in a crowded pub. Always the bookish, scholarly sort, Frank never had much luck with ladies, but somehow, his first chat with Maggie flowed easily and naturally. Though he neglected to get her number, a chance encounter with her at a clinic weeks later gave him the courage he needed, and they started to date.

As Frank regales Maggie with tales of their early dates, he reveals his awe that someone like her would ever spend time with someone like him. To him, Maggie was truly like the sun: bright, all-encompassing and powerful. She was steadfast, earnest and warm --- and he never quite got over his shock that she could ever choose him. Early on in their relationship, he recounts, she became pregnant and the two got engaged quickly, ready to devote their lives to each other and the child they would soon bring into the world. But then Maggie miscarried, and their careful planning for the future was rocked. They still married, but their relationship had a new depth to it, a painful layer that neither could ever fully face. Several years later, though, Maggie gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Eleanor.

From that point on, Frank and Maggie became a threesome, discovering within themselves new abilities and capacities for love that they never could have imagined. But Eleanor was quiet like Frank and prone to bouts of despair like Maggie, and the combination proved tragic, particularly in her teenage and early adult years. Now the unthinkable has happened, Maggie is on life support, and it is time for Frank to come clean. As he admits to all of his darkest thoughts and deepest secrets throughout their marriage, he reveals a life so full of love and hardship that it seems fit to burst --- and then Maggie gets to tell her side.

Upon returning home from the hospital after a particularly difficult visit, Frank discovers a notebook full of letters from Maggie that explain her desire to leave this world --- but only after she, too, comes clean about her role in their marriage and how it has led to the last six months of silence. Flipping the novel on its head and completely upending readers’ expectations, Greaves repeats the same stories from Maggie’s side, revealing a lifetime of unspoken words, buried secrets, and a deep well of love and respect. Weaving unspeakable hurts with endless love, she pens a tale as full of pain as it is of joy, pushing her characters to their absolute limits while reminding readers of the power of love.

THE SILENT TREATMENT is a jarring, moving exploration of a marriage and the work it takes to maintain one. Divided into two parts, it paints a full picture of both Frank and Maggie’s silences and the things they have each missed in between. Greaves writes with such detail that her characters are painfully authentic, even more so because we only get one side of their stories at a time. By allowing us to see Frank and Maggie through their own eyes and one another’s, we are able to feel as though we truly know them inside and out, creating a deep intimacy that transcends the page. I feel as though likability is too simple a concept to apply to characters like these, but I am sure that many will find Frank and especially Maggie to be unlikable. Please push through that, I beg of you. Greaves writes with such raw honesty that even the worst moments of this book are worth the energy it takes to swallow them.

Painfully moving and surprisingly uplifting, THE SILENT TREATMENT is a careful study of love, identity and compassion. I am eager to see how Greaves follows up this remarkable, unique debut.