Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.
Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.
Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....
1. Who do you think is to blame for Gabriel’s death?
2. When did you figure out the twist, and what were the clues that led you there?
3. Much of this story takes place inside a psychiatric hospital. How did this setting impact your perception of the characters—both inside and outside The Grove—and what effect did it have on the atmosphere of the book?
4. This book plays with the idea of trustworthiness, with characters seeming reliable one moment and unreliable the next. What were the elements that made you trust certain characters or not?
5. What is the meaning of the Alcestis? Why do you think the author included this reference to Greek mythology, and what does it add to your experience of the story?
6. How did you feel about the dynamic between Theo and Alicia and between Theo and Ruth as therapist and patient? What lines should or shouldn’t be crossed in these relationship? What power dynamics are at play here?
7. How did you feel about Theo and Kathy’s marriage? What are your thoughts on how their relationship is resolved?
8. This book includes many different types of communication: conversation, diary entries, art, and even silence. How are each of these used to progress the story line and character development?
