A nightmare vision of Dublin with only whispers of the city as we know it, Silent City is a world of warrior women called banshees, foul and terrifying beings called skrake that fall somewhere between the living and the dead, breeders, wallers, farmers, and shanties, all ruled by the ominous and brutish management. Inside the walls of Phoenix City is where it’s safest. Or is it? 

Silent City is a gripping and immersive novel that is parts feminist dystopia, parts post-apocalyptic zombie horror. Girls are no longer taught to read and near silence is expected within the walls. There’s an element of Big Brother in the constant possibility of being reported by peers or neighbours. The writing style is visceral, evocative, capturing the overcrowding, the ‘meat’ of people, smells, fear, and violence of this living nightmare. And yet the bond of sisterhood, tried and tested but mostly holding strong between these banshees, is vividly explored, especially once a make-or-break plan is hatched. Restricted by the near silence imposed on them, the banshees develop their own kind of language; a language that manifests as looks, gestures and actions that no longer rely on words for them to be in sync; and it’s in this unfolding of the dynamic and relationship between the banshees, as things come to a necessary head, that this story shines.

The novel explores a number of themes, including the lengths people will go to to be in control, when enough is enough, and the power of unity in the face of oppression. This makes for bleak but hopeful reading in the best possible way, as we find ourselves propelled through this cruel world by how much we are rooting for our narrator Orpen, a protagonist as tough, resilient and smart as she is fearful and vulnerable to hurt and disappointment; dreaming of her past and hopeful for her future, all the while driven by an impending need for justice. She stands slightly apart from the others due to her past in a way which allows Davis-Goff to richly develop a character with additional perspective, and perhaps even empathy, to those around her. 

Bleak as it is – and let’s really hope this isn’t a prophetic vision of Dublin’s future – this makes for compulsive reading, and I ended up invested enough in Orpen as a lead character that I’ll be lining up the prequel, Last Ones Left Alive, soon to find out more about where Orpen came from, and the devastating Emergency that resulted in the creation of Phoenix City. 

***

Silent City was published by Tinder Press on July 13th 2023. 

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my review copy.

***

Sarah Davis-Goff’s debut novel Last Ones Left Alive was published in the UK and Ireland by Tinder Press, and in the US by Flatiron. Last Ones Left Alive was nominated for the Edinburgh First Book Prize and the Not-The-Booker Prize, shortlisted for an Irish Book Award and the Kate O’Brien Award, and won the Chrysalis Award. Film rights have been optioned by Treasure Entertainment.

Sarah is co-founder of Tramp Press, which publishes Mike McCormack, Sara Baume and Doireann Ní Ghríofa. Their authors have won and been nominated for everything from the Goldsmiths Prize to the Dublin International Literary Award to the Booker Prize. Silent City is Sarah’s second novel. She lives in Dublin.