Out of the Silence

by Wendy James

I call his name – only quietly, but he hears me as I knew he would, and wants me as he always does. And we come together – right there in the darkness. And even though there is no way to be certain of any other thing in the world, I am certain that I would risk anything to keep what is between the two of us. For love, I would risk anything, lose everything.

Out of the Silence is a stunning debut novel about three Australian women from very different worlds: Maggie Heffernan, a spirited working-class country girl; Elizabeth Hamilton, whose own disappointment in love has served only to strengthen her humanity; and Vida Goldstein, a charismatic suffragist from Melbourne and the first woman to stand for Parliament in Australia.


When Maggie’s life descends into darkness after a terrible betrayal, the three women’s lives collide. Around this tragedy Wendy James has constructed a masterfully drawn and gripping fiction. Based on a true story, it unfolds at the dawn of the twentieth century against the compelling backdrop of the women’s suffrage movement and a world on the brink of enormous change.


The novel powerfully evokes the plight of women in the early 1900s – not least their limited options, whatever their class and education. However, at its heart this is a story of love – of love gone wrong; of its compromises and disappointments; but ultimately of its extraordinary transformative power.

WINNER OF THE BEST FIRST AUSTRALIAN CRIME NOVEL, NED KELLY CRIME AWARDS 2006
SHORTLISTED FOR THE DOBBIE LITERARY AWARD 2006 FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL BY A FEMALE AUTHOR

Genres: Historical Fiction, Crime, Historical, Australia

Paperback

First published March 1, 2005

About the author

Wendy James is the celebrated author of eight novels, including the bestselling The Mistake and the compelling The Golden Child, which was shortlisted for the 2017 Ned Kelly Award for crime. Her debut novel, Out of the Silence, won the 2006 Ned Kelly Award for first crime novel, and was shortlisted for the Nita May Dobbie award for women's writing. Wendy works as an editor at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation and writes some of the sharpest and most topical domestic noir novels in the country.

Reviews

[Shelleyrae at Book'd Out · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set at the turn of the last century in Australia, Out of the Silence is a compelling blend of historical and crime fiction. Based on a true story it draws from historical record and the imagination of Wendy James to explore the fate of two women, working class Maggie Heffernan and genteel immigrant, Elizabeth Hamilton at a time when the suffragist movement, led by Vida Goldstein, was gaining ground in Victoria.

Maggie's story is told in the first person, beginning in rural Victoria where she lives with her family. A little wild, Maggie wants more than "...a life indoors where nothing happens but potatoes boiling over and socks that need darning, or a child to be fed or changed or beat." and when she meets Jack Hardy, who similarly longs for more than his status offers, she falls desperately in love.

Elizabeth's life is shared through letters to her brother and private journal entries. The tragic death of her fiance in an accident shattered her dreams for the future and she chose to emigrate to Australia to take up a position as a governess. When she determines she unsuited to the situation she is instead offered accommodation with her cousins and Elizabeth joins the staff of a private school in Melbourne, finding herself a witness to the growing suffragette movement but yet hoping for "the promise of the fulfilment and contentment and happiness that for [Elizabeth] only marriage can provide".

Vida Goldstein, who is a real figure from history, is Elizabeth's employer at the private school where she works, and a close friend of her cousin, Harriet, with whom she lives. Vida's passion for women's rights is what brings these three very different characters together, when Maggie is accused, convicted and sentenced to death for murder.

Out of the Silence is not a who-dunnit but a why-dunnit exploring the social and personal contexts that led Maggie to commit such a heinous crime. It questions where the blame lies for the path her life takes, for the choices she is forced to make and how society's perception of who she is, and so what she deserves plays a part in determining her fate. It's a fascinating tale that James writes with empathy and adds human interest to the wider debate about women's rights.

Though Elizabeth's accounts can be rather dry, her moderate views temper Vida's enthusiasm and Maggie's desperate circumstances. I like that James gives each woman and her perspective a voice without judgement. Though their situations are very different their basic desire, to choose their own fate, is the same.

Out of the Silence is rich in period detail, it illustrates a time, place and attitude where science, religion and social awareness began to conflict. In large part this novel is a historical record of the momentum of the suffragette movement in Australia around the year 1900. It explores the role of women in accordance with class, privilege and law of the time, contrasting the circumstances of individuals like Maggie and Elizabeth.

A well crafted, thoughtful novel, Out of the Silence is a fascinating story of women, of love and desire. I am very pleased that Momentum has republished this award winning title for a new audience to discover.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maggie Heffernan’s life at home in rural Victoria was harsh back in the late 1800s. Her mother was a tyrant, and she couldn’t seem to do anything right by her. Her dad was a softie, always bending to their mother’s rule, and sister Doll and her two brothers tried to keep out of her way. As Maggie got older, she met Jack, and would sneak out to meet him whenever she could. Her first job in service was hard, but she was used to hard work, and the fact that she could see Jack on her half day meant it was all worthwhile.

Elizabeth Hamilton emigrated from England to Melbourne in the early 1900s after a particularly harrowing time, losing her fiancé to a dreadful accident just before their marriage. Her grief was insurmountable, and a change of scenery seemed warranted. Elizabeth kept a diary, and also corresponded with her brother Robert, who had settled in New York. She missed him dreadfully as she only knew a cousin, Harriet, whom she stayed with, when she arrived in Melbourne. Her first post was as a governess on a property way out in the bush, looking after two young girls who had lost their mother, and whose father was grief stricken, and unable to cope with raising his two daughters.

When Elizabeth returned to Melbourne, she once again stayed with Harriet, and through her teaching position met the vibrant and energetic Vida Goldstein, a passionate advocate in the rights of women, and the founder of the suffragist movement in Victoria.

Maggie’s working-class life changed dramatically when she discovered she was pregnant. Hiding her pregnancy for as long as she was able, with her fiancé away working (as her cover story) she suddenly found herself alone and penniless with no support whatsoever.

Along with Vida, Elizabeth found her life on a collision course with Maggie’s, and the three women of very different backgrounds found none of that mattered. Their options were similar, their choices hard…their disappointments were the same.

The facts and fiction of women fighting for their most basic rights back in the early 1900s blended well, and it was extremely cleverly written.

This book was a debut novel by Aussie author Wendy James, and it won the Ned Kelly award for first novel in 2006. Momentum picked it up to republish as an ebook in April 2013, therefore reaching a wider audience. I recommend this historical fiction novel, and thank the publisher for my copy to read and review.

[Sue Gerhardt Griffiths · Rating 5 out of 5]

Out of the Silence audiobook, by Wendy James, narrated by Abbe Holmes. Excellent narration, and my first read by this author. Looking forward to reading more!

I find books set in the early 1900s very interesting and have read a few though not one that gives insight into women’s suffrage movement in Australia. An intriguing book set in Melbourne and country Victoria.

Out of the Silence is profound and fascinating, but also on the sad side. A well written book I highly recommend.

[Cleopatra Pullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love history, particularly social history that explores the lives of women, and this book fits really well into this area of interest. Wendy James has taken the real life story of a young girl named Maggie Heffernan who lived in Australia at the turn of the twentieth century and added a fictional background to the crime she was tried for. To complement Maggie’s story we also have Elizabeth Hamilton’s story, a slightly older woman, an unwilling spinster, who works as a governess and later at a school run by Vida Goldstein. For those of you who know as little about Australian history as I do, in 1903, Vida Goldstein was the first woman in the British Empire to stand for election in a national parliament, woman having been given the vote much earlier in Australia than either the UK or the US. As Elizabeth’s story unfolds she gives an insight into the suffragette movement in Australia at this time as seen through a bystanders view rather than with the full force of Vida’s passion for the cause.

Maggie’s story is told in the first person and follows her movement from eldest daughter helping her rather cold mother out at home in the fabulously named Dederang, to being shipped off to the nearby town of Yackandandah to help out relations before moving away on her own accord gaining a permanent position as a servant. All through her narrative I knew that her love affair with Jack Hardy was doomed and yet I still hoped that the ending would be different so affected was I by the voice Wendy James gave her.


Elizabeth’s story is told through her journal entries and letters to her brother who is in New York, far away from their birthplace in Edinburgh, this is much drier in tone and consequently it took longer for me to get as emotionally involved in her story, which although much less dramatic than Maggie’s, illustrates how for many women the only way they would feel fulfilled was to marry but Elizabeth’s fiancé had died in a tragic accident shortly before she moved to Melbourne. Elizabeth’s story also gives us the insight into Vida’s life, a woman who has decided that improving the lives of woman and children was her goal and this couldn’t be combined with marriage. In fact all three women were fighting against not only circumstance but the freedom to have any real choices about their lives.

These lives collide when Maggie is arrested and Vida organised a campaign both during and after the trial which successfully proved to her country that she was able to run such a sustained media blitz, helped by the fact that she didn’t fit the stereotypical view of a suffragette. With Elizabeth on hand to help Vida out with the campaign and accompanying her on visits to Maggie these three women, with very different backgrounds meet.

Wendy James doesn’t judge any of the three women featured in this book, although the facts are overlaid with fiction and maybe Maggie’s story is given the most positive spin possible, it was still eminently believable and I didn’t get the feeling that sometimes happens in these types of books, that the author wanted me to come to a certain conclusion, rather she had confidence that her story was enough and the reader could make their own mind up about the choices made by each of the women.

I can’t wait to read more books by Wendy James, this is easily my favourite read of the year so far, admittedly aided by my keen interest in the subject matter but definitely enhanced by the sheer quality of the writing.

[Perry Middlemiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Out of the Silence by Wendy James was released in October 2005 by Random House, and was, reportedly, the only Australian debut novel published by the company that year. As it happens they chose well - it's a good one.

The novel in set in Melbourne and country Victoria during the period of the late 1890s and early 1900s, a time of stifling social and political conservatism, sexual double-standards and rampant hypocrisy. Yet it was also a time when the women's suffrage movement was starting to organise and spread its message, a time when women were pushing back against the barriers imposed by men. It is against this background that the author has pitched the stories of Maggie Heffernan, Elizabeth Hamilton and Vida Goldstein, each of whom with ambitions beyond their perceived social standing.

Maggie Heffernan is a lively country working-class young woman whose life is the main thrust of the book. She becomes engaged to a local rake, but finds herself abandoned after she falls pregnant. The novel follows her grim journey from the country to the city, vainly seeking her ex-fiance, finding herself destitute and finally accused of a dreadful crime. Vida Goldstein is an educated single woman running a local private school, campaigning for votes for women and contemplating running for parliament. Elizabeth Hamilton lives in Vida's aunt's house in suburban Melbourne - an upper middle-class life that provides a sharp contrast with poor Maggie's circumstances. Elizabeth and Vida take up Maggie's cause after her arrest and while their efforts don't meet with total success, all characters are changed by the events within the book.

Elizabeth's story is told in a series of letters to her brother Robert, who lives in America, and in extracts from her journals. These alternate with Maggie's first-person narration of her own account. The easiest approach to this story would be to start at the beginning and to follow tight on Maggie's life-line, extracting every skerrick of pathos and anguish along the way, squeezing it dry of all emotion. But that's too simplistic a method to tell this tale properly and James rightly has taken the harder road and has achieved a better final product as a result.

There is an art to getting this narrative approach just right. Make the sections too short and the narrative loses its forward momentum, make them too long and the reader loses the thread of what is happening in the other plot-line and gets frustrated. This is a delicate balancing act that James maintains with some skill, adding newspaper clippings and even cutting Elizabeth's journal entries; to provide extracts of extracts, if you like. The effect is to increase the amount of white space on the page, reducing the heavy blocks of text so often found in "Victorian" novels, and thereby easing the reading experience in sections where setting and background information is provided. This exhibits a remarkable technique for a debut novel.

Beyond the writing technique we have a writer who is knowledgeable about the era in which the novel is set, yet who presents that research lightly. A lot of care appears to have been taken to present the right amount of background and scene-setting information without swamping the reader with too much detail. And yet a close-reading of the text will inform as well as entertain.

In the Author's Note, it is stated that the characters of Maggie Heffernan and Vida Goldstein are based on historical figures, while Elizabeth Hamilton is purely fictional. To this reader, the introduction of the character of Elizabeth is the component that allows the novel to reach its heights. The slow revealing of her own unfortunate history, including the miscarriage of the child she had conceived with a deceased lover, highlights the social injustices and hypocrisy suffered by Maggie. She also provides the link between Vida and Maggie, bridging the social and intellectual gaps between the characters. Without her the novel would have been a very different book indeed.

This is an accomplished work from a writer with the feel for the flow of a story, the capacity to see how to assemble disparate parts of a novel, and the ability to inhabit her characters fully. I look forward to her next work.

[Di · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of Maggie Heffernan, a young country lass who becomes pregnant. Her lover Jack, decamps and leaves her to cope alone. Eventually alone and destitute she drowns her baby. Based on a real case. It is juxtaposed with the story of suffragist Vida Goldstein who took an interest in the case and worked to have Maggie’s death sentence commuted and later to have her freed when she developed early stages of TB. It was written as part of a thesis and this is evident in the excessive detail devoted to suffragist matters that did not propel the main thrust of the narrative.

[Gavan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I was expecting from a Ned Kelly winner ... the "crime" aspect was quite subtle & not apparent until halfway through. More of a story of a young country woman coming to Melbourne at the end of the 19th century. Interesting themes about society's attitude to single mothers & the extensive backdrop of women's suffrage. But I felt remote from the characters & the story dragged.

[N]

Abandoned 36%

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in Victoria in the early 1900s, OUT OF THE SILENCE has been republished by Momentum in digital format. This novel won the 2006 Ned Kelly for Best First Australian Crime Novel. Given that Wendy James has now written a number of other books, not only is this a chance to look back at an extremely worthy award winner, it's also a chance to look at back at the work of an author who specialises in sensitive looks at difficult subjects.

Whilst the packaging might be suggesting something a little on the romantic side, and the subject matter pertains particularly to women, this novel is a clever combination of true history and fictional stories that would work for all readers. The fictional stories revolve around two women - country girl Maggie Heffernan and immigrant Elizabeth Hamilton. Although from considerably different backgrounds, both women find themselves in need of work and a way to support themselves in early Melbourne. In a time when the most basic of women's rights were still being fought for by the fledgling Suffragette movement.

Maggie's story starts out in rural Victoria where, living with her family, she longs for something more than that the destiny of country wife and mother. When she meets Jack Hardy part of her sees him as a way out, part of him simply falls in love. Despite all his promises, when she discovers she is pregnant, Hardy is nowhere to be seen.

Elizabeth lost her true love, killed in a tragic accident in the UK, she emigrates to Australia with the promise of a job as a governess. When that job isn't all she hoped for she returns to Melbourne, to live with relatives, and work as a teacher in a specialist school for young women where she encounters the fledgling suffragette movement and Vida Goldstein. Goldstein, a real-life figure, is one of the leaders of that movement, and a passionate believer in the rights of women. It's through Goldstein that Maggie and Elizabeth's lives collide, after she takes up the case of Maggie's murder conviction after her baby is found, drowned in the Yarra River.

OUT OF THE SILENCE is a slow burner book that switches backwards and forwards between the two women's stories. It's a careful and pointed look at the nature of the society and the avoidable circumstances that can tragically lead to murder. In particular it looks at the restrictions and expectations forced on women by others. Whilst it might be easy to dismiss this as "women's fiction", this book does something very clever, very subtly. It personalises the pressure. It shows clearly how unfair the double-standards about unwanted pregnancy were, how restrictive the expectations of women "in their place". It takes all of that out of the realms of history and right into the lives of two women who, because of the skill with which James writes their stories, feel very real. Not surprising that it won the Ned Kelly really.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/revie...

[Carol Preston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting history re Vida Goldstein and the fight for women's rights, se in 1900 in Victoria. Also the moving story of Maggie, a young girl fighting to survive the hardship of women's lives in that era. Not always an easy story to follow.

[Dee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great debut, complex historical and a great insight into the plight of woman in the 1900's -- clever and insightful. Wendy James has done extremely well and goes on to pen other great Australian tales.

[Adri · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-crafted, page-turner of a book about three women and women's suffrage in Australia. Looseley based on fact.

[Ann Tonks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whilst there were elements of this historical story set in Victoria, Australia that were interesting, it lacked emotional depth. The structure with a variety of voices ultimately didn't pay off.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable & love the period it is set in

[Hayley Solich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the way that Wendy brought to life the struggle of this poor young woman at the turn of the century, whilst layering the culture of the day and the struggles of women for independence and the right to vote. Really enjoyed the historical learning and the way she chose to weave all the stories together.