The Silent Period A Novel

By: Francesca Manfredi

Published by W. W. Norton, Incorporated, 2026-02-24

Cristina Martino is 28 and adrift. Underemployed at a university library, she still lives at home with her parents in Turin, in the shadow of her married, affable older sister Elena. One night, as she listlessly scrolls through Instagram, Cristina decides to delete her social media profiles.

What is at first a digital detox becomes an act of self-effacement: Cristina ceases to speak. While continuing her daily life, she deprives herself of words and gestures, at first maintaining only essential communication through writing and, finally, eliminating even that. When Cristina disappears completely, Elena desperately tries to find her, and, in the process, discovers a world much quieter and stranger than she ever imagined.

Blending sparse prose, bilious wit, and unexpected tenderness, Manfredi probes at the condition of solitude--whether chosen or suffered, salvific or fatal--and the ineffability of existence. A slender novel of big ideas, The Silent Period is an indictment of modern hypocrisy and a testament to our need for genuine human connection.