Connect
MJA
MJA

Secrets and silences

Ruth M Armstrong
Med J Aust 2004; 181 (11): .
Published online: 28 April 2004

In a fictitious Australian town, the central character, Owen, who has spent most of his life confined to his home and is completely mute, allows himself a month in the real world, posing as a hospital maintenance worker. From afar he falls in love with Eva, an exuberantly dressed but painfully shy laboratory assistant. Most of the book is a record of his outrageously voyeuristic attempts to spy on Eva and her scientist lover Gunther, whom he tries to discredit in order to replace him in Eva’s affections. These “spying” passages could make some readers uncomfortable, as it is difficult to know how much Woolfe expects us to suspend our disbelief. However, it is worth pushing through this to enjoy the book’s main themes.




Correspondence: 

Author

remove_circle_outline Delete Author
add_circle_outline Add Author

Comment
Do you have any competing interests to declare? *

I/we agree to assign copyright to the Medical Journal of Australia and agree to the Conditions of publication *
I/we agree to the Terms of use of the Medical Journal of Australia *
Email me when people comment on this article

Online responses are no longer available. Please refer to our instructions for authors page for more information.