After Silence by Jessica Gergson

I almost didn't read this book but boy am I glad that I did ! After Silence is a dark book, as is much of  the world right now. The story opens in Leningrad when the city has been blockaded by the Germans and everything and most of the people left in the city are dead or dying. The opening reminded me too much of what is  happening in Ukraine, although the author had no way of knowing that this would be the world when her book was ready to be published. I had to put it down to sort out my feelings and be sure that I could read this book objectively. I decided that I could, so I restarted reading the book and ,as I have said, I am so glad that I did.

What I realized is that this is a testament  to the human need to connect with people and to share live and feelings no matter the situation. The two main women in this story have had their lives torn apart by war and death. One Katya has no desire to live the other, Lidya is Katya's polar opposite. The war, and the blockade have intertwined their lives in ways that will change them forever. One feels she is betraying someone and the other has been betrayed. The descriptions of their lives and loss are at once beautiful and wretched. 

The story shifts to a school for children where we meet the next main character Dimma, a blind child. His story comes from early, before the blockade and is a remarkable testament to the human spirit. I think that he is my favorite character, but everyone will have their own favorite in this saga.

The third shift in character takes you to the Russian front where you meet Trofim and Sasha. These two make the life of the soldiers fighting for Russia very real and very tragic. They are both hiding secrets. The author does a really good job of creating the sense of real people caught in a story that they did not choose. The book's narrative is told from the points of view of all three of these stories. They all come together and complete each other.

The author answers the question what comes after silence by telling you that is is music. The music is not always what we think of as music. There is music in the living of your life. There is music is shouting at god. There is music all around us. The author ties all of this together against a backdrop of, what we think of, as real music, a symphony. One of music and one of life.

This is a beautifully written story and is well worth reading, thinking about, and discussing with a friend or a book club. It is a story of the human spirit and how it overcomes tragedy and becomes fuller because of it. I hope that everyone who reads this  book enjoys it as much as I did.